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OUT  WEST 

AUGUST  19  14 


The  Clash  in  Nevada 


A  History  of 
Woman  s  Fight 
For  Enfranchisement 


THE  NEVADA  /UFFRAGE  FIGHT 

Articles  by 

Jane  Addams 
Mrs.  Charlotte  Perkins  Gilman        Sara  Bard  Field 
Mrs  Carrie  Chapman  Catt  Inez  Haynes  Gillmore 

Mrs.  Mary  Roberts  Coolidge  Gail  Laughlin 

Mary  Austin  and  Anne  Martin  Dr.  Anna  Howard  Shaw 


Reprint  from  Out  West 
August,  1914 


tncroh  Lihmw 


Xo  cIhc   Awakening  of   Women 

By  Sara  Bard  Field 

1— [ail  to  your  waking 

*  ■     From  your  age-long  sleep, 

O  Princesses  of  Life. 

Revolt  divine 
Breaks  the  dark  spell. 

Intoxicating  wine 
Of  freedom  have  you  drunk. 

It  has  burned  deep 
Within  your  veins. 

Long  has  man  sought  to  keep 
You  slave  or  idol, 

Toy  or  concubine. 
Behold  your  Messianic 

Star  ashine! 
And  you  have  followed 

Tho'  the  way  was  steep. 

Take  conscious  place 

In  Evolution's  plan. 
Your  brothers  thought 

Alone  to  raise  this  sphere 
Past  Hope  or  Dream. 

They  could  not  find  the  light 
With  you  in  shadow. 

Side  by  side  with  man 
Lift  up  the  earth, 

Your  Mother-eyes  fixed  clear 
Upon  the  child  who 

Beckons  you  from  Night. 

•0  °i 


ANNE  MARTIN 

President  Nevada    Equal  Franchise  Society 

Reno,  Nevada 


51 


The  CLASH  IN  NEVADA-A  H;,tory  y 


Woman  s   Fight  For   Enfranchisement     □  □  □  □ 

By  Sara  Bard  Field 


□ 


HALL  Money  or  Spiritual  Power 
win  in  Nevada  next  November? 
Is  that  state  an  autocracy,  dic- 
tated to  by  one  man  who  gains 
height  merely  from  his  stand  upon 
heaped-up  gold  bags,  or  is  it  a  democracy 
which  registers  the  heart-beat  of  its 
people  and  acts  in  accordance  therewith? 
These  questions  are  the  essence  of  the 
movement  for  Equal  Suffrage  in  Nevada 
— the  last  state  of  the  Pacific  Coast 
group  in  which  women  are  not  yet  en- 
franchised. 

You  may  say  that  such  questions  are 
the  essence  of  the  political  equality 
movement  everywhere  and  not  peculiar 
to  this  locality  alone.  True,  but  be- 
cause concretions  are  always  plainer 
than  abstractions,  and  the  individual 
more  discernible  than  the  mass,  Nevada's 
fight,  summed  up  as  it  is  in  a  smaller 
population,  widely  scattered  over  desert 
silences  and  mountain  solitudes,  with 
fewer  heroic  women  to  do  battle  against 
what  is  practically  one  man's  influence 
with  its  ramifications,  is  more  clearly 
and  simply  outlined. 

In  the  East,  both  suffragists  and  anti- 
suffragists  are  drawn  up  in  massed  battle 
line.  They  resort  to  intricate  political 
schemes  and  stratagems.  Big  Business 
and  organized  Vice  roar  their  opposition 
in  cannon  thunder.  The  smoke  of  the 
crowded  industrial  centers  obscures  the 
vision.  Noise  and  confusion  attend  the 
conflict.  Righteously  wearied  of  Fabian 
policy,  the  determined  suffragists  resort 
to  spectacular  evidence  of  their  strength. 
One  is  entirely  certain  what  the  women 
want,  but  it  is  not  always  clear  what 
power  is  opposing — -what  issues  are  at 
stake.  In  Nevada  there  is  no  confusion. 
Everyone  knows  not  only  what  the  women 
want,  but  why  there  is  opposition  and 
who  represents  it.  The  movement  here 
has  more  the  simplicity  of  a  duel  than 
the  complexity  of  a  battle.     Righteous- 


ness arid  Riches,  Justice  and  Special 
Privilege  meet  in  a  hand-to-hand  fight 
in  the  intense,  clarifying  light  of  the  wide 
desert. 

The  history  of  the  suffrage  movement 
in  Nevada  is  as  amazing  as  it  is  young. 
In  February,  1912,  the  Equal  Franchise 
organization  was  only  a  local  Reno  com- 
mittee of  five,  with  but  fourteen  paid-up 
members  and  no  count}'  organizations. 
It  was  not  even  dignified  by  the  name  of 
a  State  society.  At  that  time,  while  the 
present  head  of  the  movement  was 
away,  an  annual  meeting  was  called  by 
Mrs.  Mack,  of  Reno,  vice-president  of 
the  organization  since  Mrs.  Stanislawsky, 
the  president,  had  resigned  on  her  re- 
moval to  California.  It  was  necessary 
to  elect  a  new  president  and  to  perfect  a 
State  organization  for  immediate  and 
thorough  work. 

The  few  women  who  met  to  perform 
this  task  put  the  movement  on  a  firm 
foundation  by  electing  as  president  the 
one  woman  in  the  State  who  had  the 
necessary  qualifications  for  the  office — 
efficiency,  tact  and  leisure.  Others  there 
were  who  had  one  or  two  of  these  re- 
quirements, but  all  three  were,  at  this 
time,  imperatively  needed. 

Anne  Henrietta  Martin,  known  to 
women  of  action  on  two  sides  of  the  At- 
lantic, accepted  a  Herculean  task,  in 
the  performance  of  which  there  was  end- 
less labor,  with  little  to  lighten  it  but 
the  knowledge  of  doing  human  service 
and  the  hope  of  ultimate  success;  little 
of  reward  save  that  of  her  own  con- 
science speaking  its  approval;  little  of 
praise  and  much  of  criticism. 

I  am  tempted  to  leave  the  description 
of  Miss  Martin  for  the  close  of  this 
article.  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the 
Cana  of  Galilee  method  of  serving  re- 
freshments-— saving  a  good  wine  for  the 
last.  Yet  it  is  the  hostess  opening  the 
door  of  her  home  who  claims  the  atten- 


52 


U  U  T     W EST 


MRS.  S.  W.  BELFORD 

Secretary  of  the  Nevada  Equal  Franchise  So- 
ciety, former  Secretary  of  the  Denver  Woman's 
Club. 


tion  of  her  guests  before  they  notice  the 
furnishings  and  eat  the  banquet.  Surely 
no  one  would  dispute  the  fact  that  Miss 
Martin  ushered  in  the  active  era  of  suf- 
frage in  Nevada  and  that  her  quietly 
commanding  figure  is  the  first  feature 
of  the  movement  on  which  our  eyes 
naturally  rest. 

She  is  a  native  daughter  of  Nevada. 
Born  in  Empire  City  in  1875,  she  re- 
ceived all  the  impressions  of  childhood 
and  the  education  of  that  period  and 
later  girlhood  in  the  State.  Her  father, 
the  late  W.  O.  H.  Martin,  as  president 
of  the  Washoe  County  Bank,  held  a 
place  of  influence  in  the  community. 
Her  mother,  who  was  Louise  Stadt- 
muller,  is  still  living  with  her  daughter 
in  the  quiet  dignity  of  the  old  homestead 
on  Mill  Street  in  Reno,  surrounded  by 
her  memories  and  a  glorious  assemblage 
of  books.  One  can  easily  see  that  she 
has  bequeathed  to  her  daughter,  Anne, 
the  unflinching  hatred  of  injustice  and 
the  firmness  of  purpose  to  translate  this 
hatred  into  wise  action. 

Miss   Martin's   scholastic   life   reveals 


her  as  easily  acquiiing  those  honors 
which,  even  in  dream-outline,  were  but 
a  century  ago,  considered  highly  unfit 
for  women.  She  received  a  degree  of 
B.  A.  from  the  University  of  Nevada, 
and  a  like  degree,  with  later  an  M.  A., 
from  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.  Here,  too, 
the  Kappa  Kappa  Gamma  sorority 
captured  her  as  a  democratic  member. 
Returning  to  Reno,  she  gave  her  first 
public  service  to  her  State  by  becoming 
in  1897,  Professor  of  History  in  the  State 
University  and,  later,  lecturer  there  in 
the  History  of  Art. 

Like  the  beloved  Jane  Addams,  it  was 
in  England  that  Miss  Martin  registered 
her  first  definite  impressions  of  what 
must  be  her  life  work.  Miss  Addams, 
witnessing  the  hideous  results  of  poverty 
on  the  East  Side  of  London,  dedicates 
herself  to  the  study  of  the  cause  of 
poverty  and  its  present  amelioration. 
Miss  Martin,  coming  into  active  touch 
with  the  injustice  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment toward  women,  and  watching  with 
intelligent  eyes  the  heroism  of  those  who, 
at  inestimable  sacrifice,   were  trying  to 


SARA  BARD  FIELD    (EHRGOTT) 

Organiser  and  Speaker  for  Oregon  College 
Equal  Suffrage  League,  campaign  1911-12. 
Journalist  and  magazine  writer. 


OUT    WEST 


53 


remake  conditions,  gives  herself  to  the 
emancipation  of  her  sex. 

Like  the  young  Samuel,  she  asks  of  her 
conscience,  "Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have 
me  to  do?"  Back  from  the  secret  vault 
of  self  from  which  the  question  had  been 
hurled,  came  the  echoing  answer,  "Do!" 
"But  where  shall  I  do?"  she  asked.  In 
time  she  became  convinced  that  her 
field  of  work  was  in  her  own  land,  even 
in  that  very  corner  thereof  which  had 
given  her  birth. 

Perhaps  it  is  because  of  the  baptism 
of  fire  from  the  English  movement  that 
Miss  Martin  is  called  "militant."  Per- 
haps it  is  because,  during  her  residence 
in  London,  she  paid  for  her  principles 
with  her  temporary  liberty  and  was 
arrested  for  participation  in  a  demonstra- 
tion. Certain  it  is  that  her  enemies  have 
used  this  word  "militant"  to  create  the 
impression  of  a  huge  and  dominant 
creature  who  has  clothed  femininity  in 
masculine  garb  and  denied  her  sex  by 
every  conceivable  imitation  of  man  and 
his  methods.  Even  down  in  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  State  I  heard  the  whisper 
of  that  formidable  word — "militant." 


GAIL  LAUGHLIN 

San  Francisco,  Cal. 
Famous  woman  lawyer,  who  has  already  helped 
and  spoken  in   Nevada  for  Equal  Suffrage. 


MRS.  FLORENCE  HUMPHREY  CHURCH 

Former  President  of  the  Washoe  County  Equal 
Suffrage  League. 

Personally,  I  love  power  in  women. 
But  I  like  it  to  be  woman's  power,  not 
man's  power.  "Not  like  in  like,  but  like 
in  difference" — that  is  a  bit  out  of  our 
creed,  is  it  not?  It  was  not  pleasing  to 
contemplate  a  woman  whose  militancy 
would  be  exprest  in  a  "strident  voice," 
a  "manly  gait,"  and  a  blind  indifference 
to  the  flowering  of  woman  in  a  splendid 
devotion  to  the  things  that  pertain  to 
motherhood. 

Imagine,  then,  my  relief  when  I  stood 
face  to  face  with  Miss  Martin,  the 
"militant."  That  is  where  I  want  to 
place  your  thought  at  this  moment — 
face  to  face  with  her. 

The  anti-suffragist's  caricature  of  a 
suffragist  is  a  tall,  thin  aenemic  woman 
in  whom  belief  in  the  cause  is  synony- 
mous with  loss  of  physical  and  spiritual 
charm.  Let  us  warn  the  cartoonist 
from  seeking  Miss  Martin  for  a  study. 
The  full  development  of  her  cultured 
mind  has  been  accompanied  with  a  like 
development  of  body.  Tennis,  moun- 
tain-climbing, riding,  golf — all  have 
claimed  her  enthusiastic  adherence. 
Twice  she  was  tennis  champion  for  Leland 


54 


OUT    WEST 


MISS  BIRD  M.  WILSON 
First  Vice-President  of  Nevada  Equal  Fran- 
chise Society,  author  of  ' W omen  Under  Nevada 
Laws"  a  distinguished  lawyer,  and  the  only 
woman  stock-broker  in  Nevada.  President  of 
Esmeralda  County  Equal  Suffrage  League. 
Goldfield,  Nevada 

Stanford  University,  and  twice  for  her 
own  State.  Health  breathes  from  her 
cheeks;  from  her  disassociation  with  any 
suggestion  of  leanness;  from  her  inde- 
pendent carriage  as  well  as  from  her 
clear  thinking  and  energetic  leadership. 
Her  voice  is  gentle;  not  used  to  make 
sound,  but  to  convey  thought.  Her  eyes 
are  gray,  quiet  and  grave,  without  being 
forbidding,  and  they,  like  her  entire  face, 
contain  a  suggestion  of  the  wide  solitudes 
of  her  own  desert  land. 

She  is  optimistic,  not  easily  dis- 
couraged; tolerant  and  understanding; 
capable  of  that  rare  discriminating  and 
impersonal  love  for  humanity  which 
accepts  its  mixture  of  goodness  and 
badness  without  deifying  the  one  or  de- 
nouncing the  other.  When  women  criti- 
cize unjustly  she  says,  "They  do  not 
understand.''  If  they  take  mistaken  ac- 
tion toward  her  and  the  cause,  she  says, 
"It  comes  from  lack  of  training  in  co- 
operation. They  have  lived  such  indi- 
vidual  lives."      When  they  argue   over 


unimportant  details,  she  smilingly  as- 
serts, "Their  whole  existence  has  been 
one  of  dealing  in  minute  things.  This  is 
their  training  ground  in  the  world's 
work." 

Such  gentle  understanding  is  nicely 
balanced  by  her  stern  sense  of  justice. 
On  a  question  of  such  import  she  is  un- 
compromising. When  the  directors  of  a 
Nevada  bank  denied  the  Suffrage  Society 
the  privilege  of  renting  rooms  in  their 
building,  on  the  ground  that  they  wished 
no  women  in  the  place,  Miss  Martin 
calmly  told  them  she  could  no  longer  do 
business  with  men  who  indorsed  sex 
distinction,  and  would  withdraw  her 
account  from  the  bank.  Her  mother, 
equally  indignant,  notified  the  bank  of 
the  same  determination.  Another  woman 
depositor  of  means  sent  a  like  message. 
The  directors  capitulated. 

Likewise,  in  all  Nevada  companies, 
where  Miss  Martin  has  investments,  she 
has  always  used  her  influence  with  the 
directors  to  obtain  higher  pay  for  women 
workers  at  the  cost  of  lower  dividends  to 
the  stockholders.  In  one  company  the 
directors  informed  her  that  the  girls 
worked  very  cheaply,  as  they  boarded  at 
home.  Miss  Martin  told  them  frankly 
that  this  was  the  beginning  of  "unequal 
pay  for  equal  work,"  and  of  prostitution, 
and  begged  them  to  raise  the  wages  re- 
gardless of  the  conditions  under  which 
the  girl  employes  worked. 

And  yet  I  am  sure  she  has  never  in- 


mrs.  a.  J.  Mccarty 

Hawthorne,  Nevada 
President  of  Mineral  County    Equal   Suffrage 
League 


OUT    WEST 


55 


ventoried  her  spiritual  stock  or  her 
physical  attractions  or  taken  thought  of 
public  opinion.  She  knows  quite  simply 
that  she  is  in  the  world  to  work;  that  she 
is  human;  that  she  will  make  mistaken 
and  successful  moves.  She  goes  about 
the  accomplishment  of  her  task  "uncaring 
praise  or  blame,"  and  like  Mary  Lyon, 
fearing  only  that  she  "may  not  know  all 
her  duty  or  may  fail  to  do  it." 

Such  is  the  woman  who,  in  1912,  be- 
came leader  of  the  suffrage  movement  in 
Nevada.  What  were  the  conditions  faced 
by  this  new  president  and  her  loyal 
supporters? 

The  constitution  of  Nevada  required 
that  the  suffrage  amendment  be  passed 
twice  by  the  legislature  before  it  could 
come  before  the  male  electorate.  Thanks 
to  the  splendid  work  of  the  former 
president,  Mrs.  Stanislawsky,  and  her 
helpers,  the  constitutional  amendment 
had,  in  1911,  successfully  passed  its  first 
legislative  hearing.  But  legislators  bear  a 
likeness  to  the  wind  which  "bloweth 
where  it  listeth."  There  was  no  proving 
a  second  passage  by  the  first  unless  a 
campaign  of  education  and  persuasion  of 
the  incoming  law-makers  was  inaugur- 
ated. The  women  must  show  their 
strength. 


MARY  AUSTIN 
Mrs.  Austin  is  author  of  "Land  of  Little  Rain' 
and  "  The  Woman  oj  Genius." 


MRS.  M.  S.  BONNIFIELD 
Winnemucca,  Nevada 
President  of  Humboldt  County  Equal  Suffrage 
League.     Mrs.    Bonni field  is  widow  of  Supreme 
Judge  Bonnifield. 

Out  of  the  eighty  thousand  people  who 
form  the  population  of  Nevada,  just 
half  are  men.  Divide  that  number  again 
and  you  have  the  official  number  of  those 
who  can  qualify  as  voters.  These  twenty 
thousand  are  scattered  over  some  hun- 
dred and  twelve  thousand  square  miles 
of  turbulent  country,  an  area  a  fourth 
larger  than  Great  Britain,  and  making 
one  voter  to  every  five  square  miles. 

In  that  little  span  of  days  that  lay  be- 
tween the  election  of  the  State  Executive 
Committee  in  1912,  and  the  legislative 
session  in  1913,  the  whole  State,  with  its 
sixteen  counties,  must  be  organized  to 
serve  as  irrigation  canals  through  which 
streams  of  information  could  be  let  loose 
to  water  the  land  into  suffrage  bloom. 
Fortunately  the  Executive  Committee, 
which  met  to  perform  this  task,  were  a 
band  of  brainy  and  capable  women. 
Those  who  know  Nevada  will  gage  the 
strength  of  the  work  by  a  perusal  of 
such  names  as  Mrs.  John  Orr,  Mrs.  D. 
B.  Boyd,  Mrs.  Alice  Chism,  Mrs.  F.  0. 
Norton,  Mrs.  Jennie  Logan,  Mrs.  Grace 
E.  Bridges,  Mrs.  Charles  Gulling,  Mrs. 


56 


OUT    WEST 


MRS  RUDOLPH  ZADOW 
Eureka,  Nevada 
President      Eureka     County      Equal 
League. 


Suffrage 


O.  H.  Mack,  all  of  Reno;  with  Mrs.  J. 
E.  Bray,  of  'Carson, .  and  Miss  Bird  M. 
Wilson,  of  Goldfield. 

Little  hives  of  activity,  under  the  di- 
rection of  these  women,  were  built  all 
over  the  State.  County  organizations, 
like  lusty  babies  of  approved  eugenic 
parentage,  were  born  to  service.  Women 
of  literary  ability,  like  Miss  Martin  and 
Miss  Bird  M.  Wilson,  contributed  telling 
articles  from  able  pens.  Miss  Martin 
collaborated  with  Mary  Austin,  of  fiction 
fame,  wrote  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Suf- 
frage and  Government,"  as  well  as  a 
long  list  of  articles  for  the  daily  papers. 
Miss  Wilson,  Nevada's  distinguished 
woman-lawyer,  wrote  a  clear,  concise 
article,  "Woman  Under  Nevada  Laws," 
which  was  a  resume  of  woman's  legal 
status  in  the  State.  Doubtless  this  ar- 
ticle, published  in  two  editions  of  twenty 
thousand,  has  done  more  to  enlighten 
the  people  as  to  the  injustice  of  local 
legislation  for  women  than  any  abstract 
essay  on  the  subject. 

The  women  began  to  understand  why 
a  struggle  for  the  vote  was  necessary 
aside    from    the    abstract    principle    of 


human  justice.  They  discovered  they 
could  hold  no  office  except  that  of 
superintendent  of  public  schools  and 
school  trustee.  Even  these  positions  were 
never  open  to  them  except  in  theory,  for, 
as  Miss  Wilson  pointed  out,  the  politi- 
cians must  fill  eveiy  office  with  a  voter 
to  further  their  own  schemes.  Why 
waste  a  perfectly  good  vote  on  a  voteless 
woman?  Efficiency?  Public  welfare? 
How  absurd! 

The  women  also  learned  that  marriage 
imposed  upon  them  their  husbands' 
citizenship.  If  he  be  a  foreigner,  she  also 
becomes  one;  that  it  takes  away  the  con- 
trol of  her  earnings  and  does  not  even 
give  hei  in  place  the  control  of  her 
children.*  No  matter  what  may  be  the 
proportion  of  her  earnings  after  marriage, 
or  how  arduously  she  may  have  labored 
to  acquire  them,  she  mr,y  not  will  any  of 
the  money  or  property  away,  thus  pro- 
tecting her  children  from  the  poverty- 
breeding  effects  of  any  alcoholic  or 
gambling  tendencies  of  her  husband. 
Many  other  things  of  like  import  these 


MRS.  W.  II.  BRAY 
-    Sparks,  Nevada 
President  Sparks    Equal  Suffrage    League. 


An  equal  guardianship  law  was  passed 
by  the   Nevada  legislature  of  1913. 


OUT     WEST 


57 


Nevada  women  learned  about  themselves. 
The  education  bore  fruit. 

All  constructive  action  springs  from 
mental  concept.  As  the  women  learned, 
they  acted.  As  they  acted  they  gained 
strength.  As  they  gained  strength  they 
had  to  be  considered  by  those  who  sat 
in  the  seats  of  the  mighty.  The  legisla- 
tors learned  the  direction  of  the  tide  of 
opinion.  The  women  had  sent  to  every 
candidate  to  the  legislature  a  personal 
letter  pledging  them  to  support  the  suf- 
frage measure,  with  the  result  that  they 
knew  before  election  that  four-fifths  of 
the  law-making  body  was  with  them. 

In  February,  1913,  a  call  was  sent  out 
for  the  first  annual  suffrage  meeting  to 
be  held  in  Reno.  There  were  a  number 
of  technical  constitutional  points  to  be 
settled  and,  still  more  important,  there 
was  the  desire  to  know  the  exact  status 
of  the  work  and  to  kindle  enthusiasm  by 
mass     contact. 

Accordingly  some  thirty-nine  delegates 
met  to  hear  the  amazing  report  that 
suffrage  had,  in  one  year,  grown  from 
the  germ  of  a  State  committee,  with 
fourteen   paid-up   members,   to   a   State 


MISS  MABEL  VERNON 
of  Delaware 
Organiser  sent  to  aid  in    Nevada  campaign  by 
Congressional     Union  for    Woman    Suffrage. 


MRS.  SADIE  D.  HURST 
Reno,  Nevada 
President     Washoe     County     Equal     Suffrage 
League. 

society  with  five  hundred  paid-up  mem- 
beroj  eleven  county  and  three  auxiliary 
organizations;  that  the  legislative  com- 
mittee, headed  by  Miss  Felice  Cohn,  had 
done  its  work  to  the  end  that  suffrage 
had  passed  the  legislature  the  second 
time  by  a  bulky  majority,  and  that  the 
treasury,  which  one  year  ago  was  empty 
save  for  the  headquarter's  rental  money, 
paid  by  Mrs.  Arthur  Hodges,  of  New 
York,  now  contained  several  hundred 
dollars  from  subscriptions  and  sacrificial 
savings  of  the  women  of  the  State.  The 
movement,  clad  in  the  name  of  a  State 
society,  with  all  constitutional  questions 
settled,  faced  a  clear  field  for  an  even 
greater  year  of  labor.  The  president,  in 
a  report  which  combined  the  work  of  the 
State  Press  Committee,  of  which  she  had 
been  chairman,  with  her  own,  showed 
that  over  a  hundred  columns  of  suffrage 
material  had  been  specially  written  and 
published  in  the  Reno  papers  that  year, 
and  that  by  means  of  the  weekly  press 
service  3,500  typewritten  bulletins  had 
been  sent  out  separately  to  the  fifty 
newspapers  of  the  State.  Papers  which 
had  once  held  suffrage  up  to  ridicule  were 


58 


OUT     WEST 


INEZ  HAYNES  GILLMORE 
San  Francisco,  Cal. 

now  publishing  news  of  the  movement. 
Like  a  lone  star  of  doubtful  brilliancy  in 
a  receding  firmament,  but  one  paper 
heroically  clung  to  its  anti-suffrage  pes- 
simism. Miss  Wilson's  pamphlet,  "Wo- 
man Under. Nevada  Laws,"  had  done  its 
educational  work  in  every  county.  In 
tracing  the  development  of  the  State 
organization,  the  president  showed  the 
wise  evolutionary  stages  thru  which  the 
work  had  passed,  beginning  with  an 
advisory  board  of  men  from  even-  county, 
which  led  to  the  formation  of  committees 
of  women  in  eleven  counties,  with  five 
others  in  the  process  of  organization, 
these  in  time  becoming  full-fledged  suf- 
frage branches,  with  growing  member- 
ships. 

She  showed  that  this  success  was  due 
to  the  principle  of  co-operation  in  the 
State,  and  the  recognition  on  the  part  of 
the  women  that  in  unity  lay  success,  as 
well  as  in  the  psychic  effect  of  recent 
suffrage  victories  in  other  states.  She 
mentioned  especially  the  effective  work 
of  Miss  Wilson  and  the  women  of  Lincoln 
County,  notably  Mrs.  Alex  Or,  Mrs. 
Lizzie  Buttler,  Mrs.  Joseph  Ronnow,  and 
Mrs.  W.  P.  Murray,  in  forming  branch 


societies  with  the  largest  membership  in 
proportion  to  the  population. 

Smiling  skies,  you  will  say.  Had  there 
been  no  thunder  claps?  Had  this  young 
society  sprung  to  growth  without  the 
weathering  of  struggle  and  the  toughen- 
ing of  opposition?  Had  it  been  all  sweet- 
ness and  calm  in  their  own  midst?  Im- 
possible! The  test  of  power  is  in  time 
of  storm.  I  am  not  at  all  sure  I  would 
want  to  report  a  honey-comb  condition. 
I  feel  like  a  recent  writer  who  com- 
plained that  the  public  would  not  allow 
him  to  tell  the  truth  about  men  and 
women.  They  wanted  them  all  succu- 
lently  sweet  and  uncompromisingly  he- 
roic. The  truth  is,  we  are  all  like  the 
immortal  little  girl  with  the  curl  in  the 
middle  of  her  forehead.  We  are  good 
to  the  point  of  admitting  a  "very"  before 
the  word,  and,  let  us  confess  it,  we  are 
bad  to  the  limit  of  horridness.  Organiza- 
tions which  are  composed  of  composite 
people  are  composite  likewise.  Like  all 
men's  organizations,  the  Nevada  organi- 
zation had  its  difficulties.  Sometimes 
they  arose  from  their  own  midst.  But 
on  the  whole  the  spirit  of  unanimity  had 


MRS.  H.  C.  TAYLOR 
Fallon,  Nevada 
President     Churchill    County     Equal    Suffrage 
League. 


OUT    WES  T 


59 


been  more  than  one  would  expect  in  a 
locality  where  the  word  "solidarity"  had 
not  yet  entered  into  the  woman's  vo- 
cabulary. If  there  have  been  the  in- 
evitable misunderstandings,  these  are 
more  than  compensated  for  by  the  surer 
bonds  that  the  women  have  hastened  to 
form.  If  now  and  again  a  note  of  dis- 
satisfaction has  been  sounded,  more 
often  harmonies  have  been  produced — 
sweeter,  Wagner  would  tell  us,  because 
of  the  contrasting  discord.  Perhaps  it 
required  troubles  to  develop  such  sturdy 
support  as  was  given  the  president  and 
the  Executive  Committee  by  a  woman 
like  Mrs.  Hugh  Brown,  of  Tonopah,  who 
is,  by  the  way,  the  Inez  Milholland  of 
Nevada,  so  lovely  she  is  to  look  at. 

At  the  time  of  the  gathering  of  this 
convention  it  was  hoped  that  the  busi- 
ness of  the  State  would  necessitate  a 
special  election  at  which  time  the  suf- 
frage amendment  could  also  be  voted 
upon,  without  the  long  wait  for  the 
regular  election  in  1914.  The  leaders  of 
the  movement  in  the  East  had  strongly 
advised  a  whirlwind  campaign  of  six 
months  as  the  most  effective  means  of 


MRS.  R.  D.  EICHELBERGER 

Reno,  Nevada 

State    Treasurer  of  the    Nevada    Equal  Franchise 

Society 


MRS.  J.  E.  BRAY 
Carson,  Nevada 
President   of   Ormsby    County    Equal    Suffrage 
League;  wife  of   Nevada  Stale  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction. 

impressing  the  voters,  and  had  promised 
some  nationally-known  speakers,  among 
them  Dr.  Anna  Shaw  and  Jane  Addams, 
to  aid  Nevada  women.  The  special 
election,  however,  was  never  called.  To 
those  who  know  the  distances  of  travel  in 
the  State,  and  the  lack  of  funds  with 
which  to  carry  on  the  campaign,  it 
seems  wise  that  another  year  of  seed- 
sowing  should  have  befallen  this  young- 
society. 

The  last  word  of  the  president  at  the 
1913  convention  had  been  "education," 
and  slow  is  the  work  of  educating  the 
masses.  Thus  another  twelve  months 
filled  with  labor  rolled  around.  Again 
Reno's  earnest  women  opened  their 
doors  for  their  equally  earnest  guests 
to  the  1914  convention. 

Listen    to    the    story    of    proportions. , 
The    Suffrage    Convention   now   learned 
that   they   possest   a   membership   of   a ; 
thousand  after  but  two  years'  work — as  . 
many    in    proportion    to    population    as '. 
New  York  State,  with  its  four  million 
women  and  its  years  upon  years  of  suf- 
frage agitation.    Twenty-two  county  and 


60 


OUT     WEST 


CHARLOTTE  PERKINS  GILMAN 

Author  of  "Woman  and  Economics"  and 
editor  of  "  The  Forerunner.1' 

local  organizations  were  dotted  over  the 
State. 

Proudly  the  counties  sent  in  their  re- 
ports and  enthusiastically  the  women 
assembled  in  convention  heard  them 
read.  In  Esmeralda  County,  Miss  Bird 
Wilson,  in  spite  of  laborious  professional 
duties,  has,  as  president  of  the  county 
society,  fired  not  only  her  own  locality 
but  all  of  southern  Nevada  with  suffrage 
zeal.  She  has  been  aided  by  such  women 
as  Mrs.  James  H.  Parks  who,  in  spite  of 
suffrage  views,  perhaps  because  of  them, 
has  found  time  in  her  busy  life  to  bring 
up  seven  little  motherless  children;  by 
Mrs.  R.  W.  Cattermole,  Miss  Edna 
Hotchkiss  and  Mrs.  Anna  L.  Miller,  who 
could  teach  most  men  lessons  in  finan- 
ciering. 

A  suffrage  play  in  the  leading  opera 
house  of  Goldfield,  suffrage  floats  which 
won  four  prizes  at  the  Fourth  of  July 
celebration,  securing  Mrs.  Charlotte  Per- 
kins Gilman  for  a  brilliant  address — these 
are  the  social,  spectacular  and  educa- 
tional means  by  which  suffrage  has  been 
advertised  in  the  community.  Miss  Wil- 
son was  also  instrumental  in  organizing 
Lincoln    County,    which,    through    card 


parties  to  make  money,  and  lectures  to 
spread  information,  has  been  a  joy  finan- 
cially and  educationally  to  the  parent 
organization. 

The  Eureka  branch  has  wisely  used 
the  lure  of  literary  and  musical  program 
to  attract  women  to  its  semi-monthly 
meetings.  Mrs.  Laura  Hoegh,  Miss  Ef- 
fie  Eather  and  Mrs.  Rudolph  Zadow 
have  been  the  successive  presidents  of 
this  lively  society.  Taking  advantage 
of  the  dance  wave  over  the  country,  they 
gave  a  Labor  Day  ball  which  fattened 
both  their  social  prestige  and  their 
treasury.  Miss  Martin  and  Miss  Mable 
Vernon,  of  Washington,  have  lectured 
for  the  society,  and  the  successful  English 
play,  with  its  telling  dramatic  argument, 
"How  the  Vote  was  Won,"  was  staged. 
The  Lander  County  women  are  preparing 
to  give  this  play  in  Battle  Mountain. 

Mrs.  George  Webster,  president  of  the 
Lyon  County  branch,  heads  a  valiant 
band  of  workers.  The  aim  there  is  not 
less  than  to  interest  every  woman  in  the 
county.  They  know  that  woman's  wish 
is  father  to  man's  fulfillment  of  it.  On 
May  second  the  society  arranged  a 
parade   and   a   street-meeting.      Several 


MRS.  F.  P.  LANGAN 

P*  President  of  the  Storey  County  Equal  Suffrage 
League,  wife  of  District  Judge  Langan. 


OUT    WES T 


61 


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62 


OUT     WEST 


JANE  ADDAMS 


"Nevada,  the  last  non-suffrage  state  on  the  white  suffrage  map 
of  the  West,  must  inevitably  join  the  ranks  of  those  progressive 
states  which  stand  for  political  equality  and  social  justice  for  men 
and  women.*'  —  Jane  Addams. 


hundred  attended  and  everyone  present 
signified  his  belief  in  suffrage.  Several  of 
the  leading  citizens  offered  their  services 
during  the  campaign.  With  business-like 
exactness  this  enthusiastic  society  is  ar- 
ranging a  card  catalog  of  the  county,  and 
every  person's  stand  on  the  suffrage 
question. 

Elks  County,  under  Mrs.  E.  E.  Caine's 
guidance,  reports  quiet  and  effective 
work  in  circularizing  the  voters,  while 
the  membership  of  White  Pine  County, 
under  Mrs.  Minnie  Comins  MacDonald's 


leadership,    is    growing    by    leaps    and 
bounds. 

Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  parson 
who,  at  a  period  of  drought,  announced 
that  he  would  pray  for  rain  at  the  next 
Sunday  morning  service.  Sunday  came. 
Not  a  cloud  in  the  sky.  The  people 
thronged  to  church.  The  minister  prayed 
fervently.  But  at  the  close  of  the  service 
the  sun  shone  with  no  decreased  inten- 
sity. When  the  congregation  were  pass- 
ing out  there  was  noticed  a  little  girl, 
carrying  an  upraised  umbrella.  Everyone 


OUT    WEST 


63 


laughed.  Someone  accosted  her:  ''Why 
are  you  carrying  an  open  umbrella?" 
The  child  looked  at  the  questioner  with 
gravely  reproachful  eyes.  "Didn't  the 
minister  pray  for  rain?"  she  asked. 

Mineral  County's  suffrage  branch,  with 
Mrs.  Ada  McCarthy  as  president,  makes 
me  think  of  this  story.  They  have  or- 
ganized to  win  suffrage.  They  are  pray- 
ing the  men  to  grant  it.  Meanwhile, 
sure  of  the  deluge  of  votes,  they  have 
opened  their  suffrage  umbrellas — they 
are  studying  civil  government.  Such 
faith  is  sure  of  its  reward.  Beside  this 
preparation  for  that  which  they  know  is 
assured,  they  boast  of  having  sold  more 
suffrage  calendars  than  any  other  organ- 
ization, and  register  to  their  credit  a 
successful  suffrage  demonstration  on  May 
second.  Miners  came  down  from  the  hills 
and  farmers  came  from  the  valleys  for 
one  of  the  biggest  "get-together"  oc- 
casions in  Mineral  County. 

Mrs.  M.  S.  Bonnifield  as  president  of 
Humboldt  County,  with  her  helpers, 
Mrs.  A.  W.  Card,  Mrs.  Mark  Walser,  of 
Lovelock,  and  Dr.  Nellie  Hascall,  of 
Fallon,  have  led  their  branches  into 
winning  fields.  It  is  difficult  to  realize 
the  immense  difficulties  under  which 
many  of  these  women  labor — Mrs.  H. 
C.  Taylor,  president  of  Churchill  County, 
has  to  drive  miles  from  her  ranch  to 
Fallon  to  attend  suffrage  meetings.  They 
live  in  isolated  places.  They  have  little 
recourse  to  the  ready  supplies  of  the  city. 
They  labor  in  silence,  without  the  stim- 
ulus and  encouragement  that  comes 
from  work  in  the  rich  and  highly  culti- 
vated Eastern  fields  of  suffrage  work. 
May  they  reap  in  gladness. 

Washoe  County  has  the  largest  popu- 
lation of  the  State.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  here  the  suffrage  membership  runs 
into  the  hundreds.  Mrs.  J.  E.  Church, 
Miss  Mary  Henry,  Mrs.  Sadie  Hurst, 
Mrs.  S.  W.  Belford  and  Mrs.  Maud 
Gassaway  have  proved  an  active  force 
in  founding  new  societies  at  Sparks, 
Verdi  and  Wadsworth,  while  the  Reno 
society,  with  its  access  to  State  head- 
quarters, is  alive  with  activity.  The 
whole  county  has  been  circularized, 
social  teas  and  semi-monthly  meetings 
held,  a  self-denial  week  observed,  at 
which  time  a  large  sum  was  raised  for 
the  work  and  a  woman's  independence 


day  celebrated.  Will  such  a  day  ever 
be  synonymous  with  Mother's  Day  in  a 
national  celebration? 

Washoe  County  points  proudly  to  its 
energetic  Sparks  branch,  where  Mrs.  W. 
H.  Bray  is  president.  Judge  Pollock,  of 
the  Justice  Court  ,has  courteously  allowed 
his  office  to  be  used  as  headquarters. 
By  all  sorts  of  womanly  device  a  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  was  raised  for  the  work, 
public  meetings  held  with  prominent 
speakers  to  address  them,  study  classes 
started  and  prizes  offered  for  the  best 
suffrage  essays.  Beginning  with  nine 
members,  the  society  now  numbers  over 
fifty,  and  enrolls,  on  its  advisory  board, 
ministers,  lawyers  and  business  men. 

Mrs.  Lyman .  Clark,  Jr.,  and  Mrs.  F. 
P.  Langan,  of  historic  Virginia  City  (the 
seat  of  the  Comstock  lode),  successive 
presidents  of  Storey  County,  have  built 
up  an  excellent  suffrage  sentiment  there. 
Woman's  Independence  Day,  on  May  2, 
was  marked  by  the  blowing  of  the  whis- 
tles in  the  hoisting  works  of  all  the  great 
mines  of  the  district.  Whistles  which 
for  forty  years  have  called  the  miners 
underground  to  delve  nearly  a  billion 
dollars  from  the  depths,  on  May  2 
heralded  the  approach  of  freedom  for 
Nevada  women. 

Another  most  encouraging  feature  of 
the  Nevada  campaign  is  the  complete 
circularization  of  the  voters  of  the  State 
with  suffrage  literature  by  the  county 
organizations,  and  from  State  head- 
quarters. Mrs.  R.  D.  Eichelberger,  the 
State  treasurer,  has  been  tireless  in  con- 
ducting this  work,  assisted  by  Miss 
Alexandrine  La  Tourette,  of  the  State 
University,  Mrs.  S.  W.  Belford,  former 
secretary  of  the  Denver  Woman's  Club 
and  now  State  suffrage  secretary  in 
Nevada,  Mrs.  P.  L.  Flanigan,  Mrs.  Alf 
Doten  and  Miss  Minnie  Flanigan. 

Other  encouraging  features  are  a  com- 
prehensive canvass  of  Reno,  in  progress 
under  the  energetic  direction  of  Mrs. 
Charles  E.  Boswell  and  Mrs.  John 
Franzman,  and  the  strongly  pro-suffrage 
sentiment  of  the  large  street  crowds  in 
Reno  every  Saturday  night  who  listen 
to  Miss  Mabel  Vernon's  forceful  suffrage 
speeches. 

Mrs.  W.  H.  Hood,  second  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  State  society,  thru  her  ex- 
perience and  influence  as  the  chairman  of 


64 


OUT    WEST 


civics  in  the  State  Federation  of  Woman's 
Clubs,  has  been  a  factor  in  securing  the 
unanimous  endorsement  of  equal  suf- 
frage by  the  federation  at  its  last  con- 
vention. 

The  advisory  board  of  the  Nevada 
Equal  Franchise  Society  surely  stands 
for  victory,  for  on  it  we  find  the  leaders 
of  every  political  party  in  the  State. 
Governor  Oddie,  United  States  Senators 
Francis  G.  Newlands  and  Key  Pittman, 
Lieutenant  Governor  Ross,  Supreme 
Judge  Norcross,  Federal  Judge  Farring- 
ton,  District  Judge  Coleman,  Congress- 
man Roberts,  State  School  Superinten- 
dant  J.  E.  Bray,  the  leading  Republicans, 
Democrats,  Progressives  and  Socialists  of 
Nevada,  bankers,  lawyers,  editors,  judges, 
clergymen,  university  professors,  mer- 
chants, leaders  from  every  county,  have 
pledged  their  support  to  the  movement 
and  are  on  the  advisory  board  of  the 
State  society. 

Has  the  seething  and  boiling  of  the 
suffrage  cauldron,  with  such  lively  in- 
gredients as  these  official  reports  and 
state-wide  work  contained,  no  Macbeth 
prophecy  of  woman's  succession  to  the 
throne  of  her  rights?  The  steady  eye 
of  those  fixed  upon  Nevada's  suffrage 
campaign  has  already  marked  victory 
lising  just  above  the  horizon.  Nor  do 
they  reckon  from  empty  guesses.  They 
know  that  this  untiring  work  of  the 
women  has  resulted  in  the  endorsement 
of  suffrage  by  the  State-wide  conference 
of  labor  held  in  Reno  in  February,  1913, 
representing  six  thousand  members,  and 
by  every  individual  labor  organization, 
in  Nevada  that  has  voted  on  the  question. 
They  know  that  labor's  voice  is  the  loud- 
est in  the  State.  When  labor  backs  a 
movement  one  can  be  sure  of  two  things 
— that  the  movement  is  right  and  that  it 
will  win.  They  know,  too,  that  the 
splendid  indorsement  given  to  suffrage 
by  the  legislative  vote  is  the  index  of 
opinion  in  the  State.  They  know  that 
Nevada  will  not  give  her  women  less 
honor  than  the  states  round  about  her. 

Thus  a  nation  watches  a  spiritual 
fight  where  but  a  few  years  ago  they 
witnessed  the  clash  of  federal  troops 
against  striking  miners — striking  in  a 
just  cause.  Nevada,  which  has  given  of 
her  gold  and  her  silver  to  enrich  the 
coffers  of  man,  is  about  to  give  of  her 


justice  and  honor  to  broaden  the  life  of 
woman.  In  the  pursuit  of  this  end  she 
is  gaining  no  less  of  recognition  than  in 
the  days  when  the  gold  fever  burned  hot 
in  her  veins  and  she  was  sought  by 
fortune-hunters  from  all  over  the  globe. 

The  amount  of  advertising  that  the 
suffrage  campaign  has  brought  to  the 
State  outdoes  the  record  of  any  publicity 
committee  in  existence.  It  has  brought 
world-wide  recognition,  for  the  ink  of 
Miss  Martin's  tireless  pen  has  run  out 
across  the  Atlantic  and  into  European 
papers.  Her  articles  have  been  published 
in  Votes  for  Women,  The  Suffragette  and 
the  London  Standard — all  English  per- 
iodicals— as  well  as  in  many  American 
papers  through  her  syndicated  work. 
Such  important  Eastern  papers  as  the 
Philadelphia  North  American,  New  York 
World,  Evening  Post  and  Sun,  Chicago 
Tribune  and  Record- Herald,  Indianapolis 
News,  Lexington  Herald  and  La  Fol- 
lette's  Magazine  have  published  personal 
interviews  with  Miss  Martin — articles 
dealing  with  Nevada's  resources — min- 
eral, agricultural,  irrigational  and  edu- 
cational. In  January,  1914,  Miss  Martin 
also  gave  fifteen  addresses  before  large 
representative  Eastern  audiences.  People 
ignorant  of  the  fact  that  Nevada  had 
contributed  ought  to  her  country  but  a 
refuge  for  Eastern  divorcees,  gamblers 
and  prize-fighters,  applauded  the  speak- 
er's revelations  of  this  State's  service  to 
the  nation.  She  told  them  how  this 
"Battle  Born  State"  had  saved  the 
country  after  the  Civil  War  from  finan- 
cial ruin  by  its  mine  production  of  nearly 
a  billion  dollars,  which  restored  national 
credit.  On  one  occasion  as  many  as  five 
thousand  people  listened  to  this  story. 
Likewise  there  has  been  sent  East  by  the 
Nevad?  Suffrage  Society  more  than 
forty  photographs  of  Nevada — her  in- 
dustrial and  mineral  aspects — which  have 
been  used  at  the  immense  suffrage  rallies 
in  large  Eastern  centers — New  York, 
Boston  and  other  cities  of  like  importance. 

It  remained  for  suffrage,  eagle-like,  to 
lift  Nevada  on  its  wings  from  the  plains 
of  ignorance  wherein  she  dwelt  in  the 
minds  of  men.  It  took  woman's  hand 
to  turn  the  national  search-light  upon  her, 
and  woman's  lips  to  speak,  trumpet-like, 
the  truth  concerning  her.  If  this  pub- 
licity should  usher  in  an  era  of  good  times 


OUT    WEST 


65 


for  the  State,  it  could  truly  be  said, 
"Suffrage  and  Prosperity  have  kissed 
one  another." 

Four  months  yet  remain  before  election. 
During  that  time  Nevada  will  be  host 
to  speakers  of  national  and  international 
fame.  Dr.  Aked,  of  California,  has 
already  been  to  the  State.  Miss  Mabel 
Vernon,  of  Washington,  sent  out  by  the 
Congressional  Union,  has  done  all-round 
relief  and  inspirational  work  through  her 
organizing  and  speaking.  She  will  re- 
main till  August.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James 
Laidlaw,  of  New  York,  Dr.  Stubbs,  of 
the  State  University,  and  Dr.  Aked,  of 
San  Francisco,  have  addressed  large  au- 
diences in  the  Reno  opera  house.  Dr. 
Anna  Shaw,  Miss  Jane  Addams,  Gail 
Laughlin,  Mrs.  Harriot  Stanton  Blatch, 
daughter  of  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton, 
will,  most  probably,  be  able  to  visit  Ne- 
vada sometime  during  the  campaign. 
Charlotte  Anita  Whitney,  president  of 
the  California  College  Equal  Suffrage 
League,  second  vice-president  of  the 
National  Suffrage  Organization,  has 
promised  Nevada  women  a  month.  It 
was  due  to  her  efforts  that  the  College 
League  in  the  State  University  was 
formed  with  Miss  Clara  Smith  as  presi- 
dent. Miss  Whitney  was  also  an  im- 
mense factor  in  the  Oregon  campaign. 
Inez  Haynes  Gilmore,  who  is,  if  possible, 
more  fascinating  than  the  children  of 
her  pen,  will  bring  her  charm  and  her 
culture  to  the  State  for  a  few  addresses. 
Maud  Yonger,  loved  by  San  Francisco 
labor  to  a  man,  is  plso  booked  for  the 
State  as  is  General  Rosalie  Jones,  of 
hiking  fame,  and  Colonel  Ida  Craft, 
Helen  Todd,  who  has  captured  every 
Eastern  audience — even  the  learned  Har- 
vard one;  Margaret  Foley,  silver-voiced 
orator  of  Massachusetts  who  did  most  of 
all  women  to  get  suffrage  through  the 
first  Massachusetts  legislature;  and  Sara 
Bard  Field  Ehrgott,  Oregon  organizer 
and  speaker. 

These  women  come  without  thought 
of  remuneration  save  the  tide  of  gladness 
which  rushed  into  the  soul  with  the  out- 
giving of  self.  Eastern  and  Western 
women  join  hands  in  financial  aid  to  this 
campaign.  Mrs.  O.  H.  P.  Belmont, 
Mrs.  Joseph  Fels,  Mrs.  Arthur  Hodges, 
Mrs.  Clarence  Mackay,  all  honoiary 
presidents,  have  sent  funds.  The  National 


has  contributed  a  thousand  dollars,  Cali- 
fornia three  hundred,  Boston  Equal 
Suffrage  League  for  Good  Government 
two  hundred.  Most  of  the  rest  has  been 
the  contribution  of  Nevada's  men  and 
women.  It  is  true  that  they  still  need 
funds.  They  are  sure  they  will  not  be 
wanting. 

A  battle — a  clash — do  you  call  this 
humble  record  of  woman's  sendee  in  a 
great  cause?  Yes,  a  battle.  Can  you 
not  visualize  it?  Can  you  not  see  these 
county  organizations  like  valiant  cohorts 
doing  whatever  their  hands  find  to  do, 
whether  it  be  baking  cookies  or  writing 
thoughtful  articles  for  a  magazine,  man- 
aging parades  or  distributing  leaflets, 
but  sure,  whatever  the  task  may  be,  that 
they  are  coming  up  to  the  help  of  the 
Lord?  Can  you  not  hear  the  tramp  of 
their  purpose  and  feel  the  determined 
massing  of  their  strength  in  a  struggle 
none  the  less  heroic  because  it  lacks  the 
martial  beat  of  drums  and  the  spectacular 
flutter  of  banners?  Can  you  not  see 
their  knap-sacks  filled  with  dreams  on 
which  they  feed  as  they  march  to  vic- 
tory? Behold  a  peaceful  battle,  gen- 
erated and  officered  by  wise  leadership, 
waged  in  love  and  financed  by  sacrifice. 
But  a  battle,  for  the  enemy  has  declared 
war! 

No  wonder  Monopoly,  feeling  the 
lances  from  such  foes,  trembles  and  fears. 
No  wonder  Selfishness  and  Ignorance, 
twin  spirits  of  darkness,  beholding  the 
powers  of  Unselfishness  and  Truth,  gird 
on  the  mightiest  of  their  swords — the 
sword  of  Money — and  threatens  the 
people  with  its  strength.  Behold  the 
blade  is  dulled! 

A  time  is  coming  when  the  God  of 
Gold,  mighty  tho  he  be,  shall  lie  prostrate 
beneath  the  heel  of  the  God  of  Good. 
That  will  be  the  day  when  the  workers  of 
the  world  enter  into  their  heritage.  Not 
yet  has  that  day  dawned  for  the  earth — 
nor  for  Nevada.  A  suffrage  victory  will 
not  kill  the  God  of  Gold  in  that  State. 
He  will  only  be  wounded  on  the  desert 
plains.  The  women  will  hurl  the  lance. 
A  great  lesson  is  about  to  be  taught  in 
this  Western  land.  It  is  the  lesson  that 
no  one  man's  power,  combined  with 
vested  and  evil  interests,  shall  longer  stop 
the  mouth  of  the  prophet  and  halt  the 


66 


OUT    WEST 


march  of  justice;  that  pride  of  money  special   privilege  acquired  from   wealth, 

goeth  before  destruction  and  that  he  who  must  take  heed  lest  he  fall  before  the 

thinketh  he  standeth  sure  and  safe  upon  people's   rights   and    the   riches   of    the 

wealth    acquired   from   the    people    and  spirit. 


Suffrage  and  Government 

By  Mary  Austin  and  Anne  Martin 


X 


N  the  beginning  of  the  woman  suffrage 
movement  the  objection  most  obstinate- 
ly, and  in  most  cases  honestly,  enter- 
tained against  it  was  one  derived  from 
the  idea  of  government  as  an  extraneous 
force.  The  stick  wielded  by  the  strong  kept 
men  in  older.  This  was  an  idea  which  rooted 
very  far  back  in  racial  history,  in  the  time  when 
combat  was  the  chief  business  of  life;  and  those 
who  used  it  forgot,  or  never  knew,  that  women 
were  originally  exempted  from  fighting,  not  on 
account  of  incompetence,  but  because  of  their 
importance  to  the  tribe.  That  primitive  women 
can  fight  as  ferociously  and  successfully  as  any 
female  animal  when  occasion  arises,  is  a  fact 
that  is  surprisingly  forced  upon  us  even  yet, 
when  the  outposts  of  civilization  come  in  contact 
with  the  wild  tribes.  But  man's  objection  to 
seeing  them  risk  their  most  precious  quality, 
their  potential  maternity,  in  a  light,  is  so  wide- 
spread that  it  amounts  to  a  taboo.  For  women 
to  be  obliged  to  use  force  means  racial  disaster. 
So  long  then  as  government  in  the  popular  esti- 
mate meant  the  use  of  force,  this  was  a  valid  ob- 
jection to  women  having  any  voice  in  it. 

But  the  rapid  sweep  of  democracy  in  the  past 
two  centuries  has  brought  us  around  to  a  new 
view  of  government  as  an  affair  of  social  consent. 
The  more  general  this  consent  the  less  the  com- 
pulsion needed  to  bring  it  into  effect.  All  the 
newest  devices  of  popular  government,  the 
initiative,  referendum  and  recall,  are  means 
of  making  this  social  consent  more  direct  and 
immediate. 

This  new  conception  of  government  as  social 
consent  cuts  two  ways  in  favor  of  woman  suf- 
frage. By  resting  the  right  to  participation  in 
government  on  the  ability  to  consent,  rather 
than  on  fighting  capacity,  it  disposes  forever  of 
the  ancient  argument  that  women  ought  not  to 
vote  because  it  is  not  desirable  that  they  should 
go  to  battle. 

What  women  are  asking  for  is  the  right  to 
consent  to  the  laws  under  which  they  live. 
Wherever  the  ballot,  which  is  the  official  means 


of  such  consent,  is  denied  them,  women  are  still 
in  respect  to  their  social  rights  under  the  regime 
of  force,  and  society  goes  limping  along  with  one 
member  rejoicing  in  the  freedom  of  democracy 
and  the  other  still  swathed  in  the  restraints  of 
feudalism. 

But  the  experiment  of  democracy  has  proved 
more  than  anything  else  the  fallacy  of  that 
other  anti-suffrage  bogie,  the  idea  of  government 
as  a  function.  Government  is  a  means  of  get- 
ting the  business  of  society  done  expeditiously. 

The  vote  is  merely  the  approved  instrument 
for  registering  social  consent.  So  long  as  govern- 
ment is  regarded  simply  as  the  administration 
of  the  affairs  of  the  people,  there  can  logically  be 
no  governing  class  or  sex.  The  people  as  a 
whole  can  have  no  affairs  to  which  all  the  people 
are  no  equal.  The  ballot,  either  written  or  oral, 
is  the  most  ancient  means  of  expediting  business. 
It  is  present  in  the  pow-wow  of  the  aboriginal 
tribes  and  the  folk-moot  of  the  ancient  Saxons. 
It  is  present  today  in  large  bodies,  composed  ex- 
clusively of  women,  who  meet  in  convention, 
conduct  important  financial  operations  and  make 
laws  for  the  control  of  widely-separated  organi- 
zations. Women  vote.  The  only  question  be- 
fore the  public  today  is  whether  they  shall  be 
permitted  to  vote  in  the  matters  that  most  im- 
mediately concern  them. 

It  is  the  use  of  the  ballot  in  the  less  important 
issues  of  society  that  has  taught  women  its  value' 
as  an  instrument  in  the  field  of  human  achieve- 
ment. In  nothing  do  they  show  their  fitness  for 
it  so  much  as  in  the  quickness  with  which  they 
have  grasped  the  use  of  it  as  the  outgrowth  of 
the  human  instinct  for  expedience  and  efficiency. 
For  centuries  men  have  been  regarding  partici- 
pation in  public  business  as  a  kind  of  divine 
right,  a  privilege  of  wealth  or  birth  or  sex,  and  in 
as  many  years  women  have  seized  upon  it  as  a 
means  of  getting  something  done,  a  new  broom 
with  which  to  make  a  cleaner  sweep  of  their 
business. 

The  chief  business  of  women  is  mothering. 
This   includes   the   co-related    and   equally   im- 


OUT    WEST 


67 


portant  activities  of  reproduction  and  conserva- 
tion. It  means  not  only  bearing  children,  but 
looking  after  their  food  and  clothing  and  hous- 
ing, their  bodily  safety  and  the  welfare  of  im- 
pressionable minds.  The  woman  of  today  who 
wishes  to  do  her  business  well,  finds  herself  in  a 
serious  predicament. 

For  today  the  greater  part  of  all  the  activities 
upon  which  the  successful  bringing  up  of  a 
family  depends  are  carried  on  outside  the  home. 
In  order,  in  the  disfranchised  states,  to  exercise 
any  control  over  the  food,  the  education,  and 
the  industrial  conditions  which  env'ron  her 
children,  the  mother  must  attend  a  vast  number 
of  public  meetings,  town  council,  board  and  com- 
mittee meetings,  armed  with  the  ancient  and 
ineffectual  instrument  of  "indirect  influence." 
The  very  word  "indirect"  is  a  confession  of  in- 
efficiency. The  business  of  women  is  of  such 
importance  to  the  state  as  to  demand  the  most 
direct  and  immediate  means.  It  is  only  with 
the  ballot  that  woman  can  stay  at  home  to 
nurse  one  child  and  yet  follow  the  other  to  school, 
to  the  shop,  the  factory,  the  place  of  amusement. 
With  this  white-winged  messenger  of  her 
mothering  thought  she  can  to  some  degree 
overshadow  and  protect  him. 

The  Ballot  for  Women  Means  Freedom  for  Men 

But  it  is  not  only  to  enable  her  to  do  her  work 
in  the  world  that  man  must  restore  to  woman 
her  natural  control  of  those  departments  of  life 
which  make  for  stable  conditions.  It  is  in  order 
that  he  may  do  his  own  work  more  efficiently. 
True  maleness  is  the  exercise  of  initiative,  ex- 
ploration, experimentation,  the  breaking  of  new 
lands,  the  extension  of  the  frontiers  of  thought. 
Man  under  modern  conditions  has  so  overloaded 
himself  with  women's  work  of  conservation  that 
he  can  scarcely  do  his  own.  By  attempting  to 
constitute  himself  the  sole  center  of  woman's 
activities  he  has  overleaped  his  capacity. 
Much  of  the  modern  industrial  revolt  is  all  un- 
consciously a  reaction  against  the  excessive 
burdening  of  man  with  the  whole  business  of 
society. 

Man  is  an  individualist;  his  instinct  is  to  com- 
pete rather  than  to  co-operate.  Woman  is  es- 
sentially social,  the  center  of  the  family  group. 
It  is  her  instinct  to  make  things  comfortable, 
the  natural  outreach  of  the  mothering  impulse. 
And  a  good  half  of  the  business  of  government  is 
just  that;  it  is  neither  a  duty  nor  a  privilege  but 
an  efficacious  way  of  making  us  all  comfortable 
together. 

Government  and  Policing 

If   the  recent   discovery   of  democracy,   that 


government  does  not  necessarily  imply  fighting, 
is  a  reason  for  giving  women  a  part  in  it,  a  much 
greater  one  exists  in  the  fact  that  government 
does  still  incidentally  involve  the  chances  of  war. 
The  old  idea  implied  a  state  of  society  in  which 
war  was  inevitably  and  always  imminent.  The 
original  exclusion  of  women  from  council  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  ancient  councils  were  seldom 
about  anything  else  but  fighting. 

The  real  question  is  not  whether  women  can 
fight  or  not,  but  whether  their  interests  are 
affected  by  the  fighting  which  men  do.  The 
strong  opposition  to  the  vote  of  women  in  some 
quarters  comes  from  their  known  genius  for 
pacification.  The  work  of  women,  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  race,  is  so  seriously  affected  by 
war  that  it  isn't  considered  safe  to  let  them  hold 
a  deciding  voice  upon  the  question  of  a  particu- 
lar war.  The  fact  that  women  are  excluded 
from  voting  on  declarations  of  war  because  of 
the  likelihood  of  their  voting  against  it  is  one  of 
the  best  reasons  why  war  should  not  be.  That 
which  destroys  the  labor  of  one-half  of  society 
cannot  be  good  for  the  whole  of  it. 

It  is  this  resistance  of  man  to  any  curtailing 
of  his  ancient  habit  of  combat  which  has  ani- 
mated much  of  the  objection  to  women  inter- 
fering in  the  small  private  wars  of  theft,  arson, 
assault  and  rape  which  men  declare  on  one 
another  and  on  women.  Ic  has  been  said  that 
women  oughc  not  to  vote  because  they  could  not 
be  police.  Women  having  already  become 
police  in  Denmark,  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  in 
Canada,  in  Chicago,  Denver,  Los  Angeles.  San 
Francisco,  Tacoma,  Seattle  and  half  a  dozen 
other  American  cities,  it  is  discovered  that  a 
large  part  of  police  duty  is  concerned  with  pre- 
vention rather  than  punishment,  and  with  the 
conservation  of  social  forces  and  the  stoppage 
of  social  waste.  And  this  sort  of  policing  is 
seen  very  easily  to  derive  nothing  from  force, 
and  not  to  depend  upon  it.  It  is  based  primarily 
on  our  social  consent  to  the  introduction  of  the 
mother  element  in  all  departments  of  life. 

The  woman  policeman  would  be  as  great  an 
absurdity  as  the  anti-suffragist  of  a  generation 
ago  believed  her,  if  it  were  not  for  this  general 
consent  to  the  propriety  of  women  going  where- 
ever  children  must  go,  and  going  clothed  with 
authority.  It  is  the  latest  and  best  evidence 
that  men  are  moving  concertedly  to  release  to 
women  the  opportunity  to  do  their  work  in  the 
world  and  the  means  of  doing  it  efficaciously. 

The  Witness  of  the  West 

While  society  needs  the  operation  of  the  con- 
servative mother-thought  in  all  its  departments, 


68 


OUT    WEST 


there  has  been  especial  demand  for  it  in  the 
West  because  of  the  unduly  high  percentage  of 
male  population.  It  is  notable  that  the  answer 
of  the  men  of  the  West  to  this  social  need  has 
been  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  the  women. 

That  Western  men  have  been  more  responsive 
to  women's  demand  for  the  right  to  perform 
their  work  for  society  is  no  doubt  due  to  an 
instinctive  desire  on  man's  part  to  give  back  to 
woman  her  proper  share  in  a  society  which  more 
nearly  confoims  to  a  primitive  division  of  labor 
than  do  the  older  and  more  artificial  Eastern 
communities.  Men  in  the  West  have  been  so 
much  occupied  with  the  natural  male  activities 
of  breaking  new  ground,  organizing  new  enter- 
prises, general  exploration  and  experimentation, 
that  women  have  regained  much  of  their  original 
social  importance  to  the  community.  The 
granting  of  woman  suffrage  in  the  Western 
states  is  part  of  the  subconscious  response  of 
men  to  a  great  social  need. 

There  are  left  only  three  Western  or  Rocky 
Mountain  states  which  have  not  enacted  equal 
suffrage  laws:  Montana,  Nevada  and  New 
Mexico;  of  these  states  Nevada  is  the  only  one 
which  has  no  form  whatever  of  suffrage  for 
women,  Montana  having  tax-paying  and  school 
suffrage  and  New  Mexico  having  school  suffrage. 
Nevada  appears  on  the  white  map  of  the  Western 
states  as  a  big  black  spot  entirely  surrounded  by 
the  white  suffrage  states — California,  Oregon, 
Idaho,  Utah  and  Arizona,  with  Washington, 
Wyoming,  Colorado  and  Kansas  contiguous,  and 
Montana  and  New  Mexico  colored  grey,  indi- 
cating the  partial  suffrage  in  operation  there. 
The  territory  of  Alaska  recently  granted  woman 
suffrage,  one  of  the  chief  reasons  being  the  desire 
on  the  part  of  the  men  to  bring  in  more  women, 
as  the  male  population  is  greatly  preponderant 
there. 

Excessive    Male    Populations    Favor    Woman 
Suffrage 

The  fact  that  the  woman  suffrage  amendment 
has  passed  the  two  successive  sessions  of  1911 
and  1913  of  the  Nevada  legislature  by  large 
majorities,  and  has  likewise  been  submitted  in 
Montana  and  in  North  and  South  Dakota,  in- 
dicates that  the  men  there  are  alive,  like  the 
men  of  Alaska,  to  the  need  for  more  women. 
Nevada,  of  all  states  of  the  Union,  has  not  only 
the  largest  male  population  in  proportion  to 
women,  but  has  the  largest  male  transient 
population,  which  can  vote  by  conforming  to  a 
six  months'  residence  qualification.  Nevada, 
then,  is  the  state  where  woman's  influence  is 
least  effective  because  she  is  in  so  great  a  minor- 


ity, is  most  largely  dominated  by  "man-made" 
law,  a  state  which  is  most  nearly  the  expression 
of  man's  mind,  a  male  society. 

We  find  the  law-making  power  of  the  whole 
people  concentrated,  not  only  in  the  hands  of 
men,  but  to  some  extent  in  the  hands  of  a  male 
transient  population,  which  simply  cannot  have 
the  permanent  interests  of  the  State  at  heart; 
at  the  same  time  the  conserving  powers  of 
women,  who  constitute  a  more  stable  element  in 
the  State's  population,  are  ineffective  for  the 
good  of  the  community.  Can  these  conditions 
be  good  for  any  commonwealth?  The  answer  is 
that  Nevada,  too,  is  preparing  to  enfranchise 
her  women. 

In  the  total  population  of  the  State  there  are 
52,551  males  to  29,324  females,  or  179.2  males 
to  100  females,  according  to  the  census  of  1910. 
The  following  table  shows  sex  distribution  in  the 
eleven  states  having  the  highest  percentages  of 
male  population: 

According  to  the  Census  of  1910* — 


Nevada  has,  to 

every  100 

females..  179. 2 

males 

Wyoming 

<< 

168.8 

u 

Montana 

u 

152.1 

" 

Arizona 

it 

'               138.2 

" 

Washington 

M 

136.3 

a 

Oregon 

It 

133.2 

a 

Idaho 

a 

132.5 

u 

California 

M 

125.5 

a 

North  Dakota 

U 

122.4 

a 

South  Dakota 

U                        1 

118.9 

a 

Colorado 

((                      < 

116.9 

a 

It  is  significant  that,  these  eleven  states,  with 
the  exception  of  Nevada,  Montana  and  North 
and  South  Dakota,  have  woman  suffrage.  Each 
with  its  large  male  population  has  felt  the  de- 
sirability of  increasing  woman's  direct  influence 
by  enfranchisement,  or  by  taking  the  necessary 
steps,  as  have  Montana,  Nevada  and  the  two 
Dakotas.  These  figures  show  that  states  where 
male  population  is  excessive  have  felt  the  need 
and  value  of  women  sooner  than  others;  that 
communities  where  men  are  most  and  women  are 
fewest  have  been  the  first  to  recognize  woman's 
social  value,  have  been  quick  to  register  this 
knowledge  and  make  effective  her  power  for 
social  good  by  full  enfranchisement.  These 
figures  show  also  that  Nevada,  of  all  states  of 
the  Union,  needs  woman's  help  the  most.  In 
1900  the  Wyoming  ratio  was  the  highest,  169 
to  100,  while  Nevada  was  second  at  153  to  100, 


*  New    Mexico   is   the   twelfth    highest,    with   a 
proportion  of  115  males  to  every ^100  females. 


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69 


instead  of  179.2  as  it  is  now,  showing  that  male 
influence  has  increased  in  Nevada  over  26  per 
cent  in  che  last  ten  years.* 

Male  Transient  Population  a  Nevada  Problem 

Of  the  population  15  years  of  age  and  over, 
51.3  per  cent  of  Nevada  males  are  single  and 
21  per  cent  of  the  females,  indicating  in  connec- 
tion with  other  figures  a  largely  unmarried  male 
transient  population.  Over  15  years  of  age  the 
percentage  of  married  is  41.4  for  males  and  67.1 
for  females,  showing  that  women  having  family 
and  home  interests  in  the  State  thru  marriage 
are  over  25  per  cent  in  excess  of  men  having  the 
same  interests.  (The  statistics  for  widowed 
persons,  etc.,  are  not  given. )  As  a  result  of 
exclusive  male  domination  in  a  state  developing 
under  conditions  of  frontier  life,  we  find  that  the 
percentage  of  adult  and  juvenile  crime  and  de- 
linquency, of  resorts  licensed  for  immoral  pur- 
poses or  for  the  sale  of  liquor,  is  unduly  high. 
Moreover,  Nevada's  uncertain  political  and 
legislative  history,  shaped  as  it  has  been  time 
after  time  by  selfish  and  corrupt  influences 
easily  dominant  thru  the  indifferent  or  pur- 
chasable portion  of  the  "floating  vote,"  is  a 
sufficient  answer  to  the  question  whether  ex- 
clusive male  control  has  been  good  for  the  com- 
munity. The  large  floating  vote  is  an  acknowl- 
edged problem  in  Nevada's  political  and  social 
life,  it  is  the  chief  factor  in  the  unstable  character 
of  the  State's  legislative  history.  This  transient 
vote  is  by  no  means  all  mercenary:  a  part  of  it 
is  composed  of  intelligent  and  incorruptible  men, 
but  the  irresponsible  element  has  too  often  held 
the  balance  of  power;  and  it  is  desirable  for 
every  community  to  have  its  destinies  controlled 
by  the  class  which  best  understands  its  needs 
and  will  vote  for  its  permanent  interests — the 
home-keeping  men  and  women.  At  the  close 
of  a  former  legislature  fourteen  members  leffr 
the  State,  having  no  permanent  residence  nor 
interests  in  Nevada.  Legislation  has  too  fre- 
quently shown  that  the  majority  of  legislators 
have  not  the  vital  home  interests  of  the  people 
at  heart.  When  a  former  special  session  was 
called  its  members  had  scattered  so  far  in  the 
intervening  year  that  they  had  to  be  summoned, 
not  only  from  several  other  states  of  the  Union, 
but  from  countries  as  remote  as  Alaska,  Canada, 
Mexico  and  South  Africa.  Contests  frequently 
waged  in  the  past  to  use  Nevada  for  licensing 


evils  repudiated  by  her  neighbors  will  be  im- 
possible when  the  unstable  vote  is  overcome  by 
increasing  the  power  of  the  stable  population,  of 
which  women  compose  a  large  proportion.* 

The   West   Recognizes   Women's   Constructive 

Powers  Bucmft  Lib* 

Women  will  do  for  Nevada,  Montana  and  the 
Dakotas  what  they  have  already  done  and  are 
doing  for  Wyoming,  Colorado,  Utah,  Idaho, 
Washington,  California,  Oregon,  Arizona  and 
Kansas,  for  Alaska  and  Illinois.  They  have 
always  promptly  enacted  humanitarian  and 
conservation  laws  since  they  were  first  of  all 
enfranchised  in  Wyoming  in  1869.  A  most 
significant  historical  fact  is  that  the  first  law 
ever  introduced  into  a  legislative  body  by  a 
woman  legislator,  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
was  the  law  raising  the  age  of  protection  for  girls 
in  Colorado  to  eighteen  years.  Laws  equalizing 
the  personal  and  property  rights  of  men  and 
women ;  to  protect  children  and  give  them  better 
schools,  juvenile  courts,  state  homes  or  farms 
for  girls  and  dependent  or  deliquent  children; 
humane  and  sanitary  laws;  mother's  pensions; 
the  minimum  wage  scale;  systems  to  decrease 
economic  and  social  waste  by  the  enlightened 
administration  of  prisons;  laws  to  abolish  re- 
stricted districts;  the  prompt  recall  of  a  judge 
who  did  not  protect  injured  girls  are  all  embodi- 
ments in  the  enfranchised  states  of  women's 
ideals  of  service  for  the  people.  Women  using 
the  vote  are  merely  carrying  on  their  natural 
functions  of  conservation  of  health  and  life  and 
are,  therefore,  an  invaluable  constructive  and 
complementary  force  in  the  world's  work. 

The  men  of  Nevada,  like  those  of  Alaska  and 
the  free  states  of  the  West,  are  beginning  to 
realize  the  necessity  of  making  the  State  more 
desirable  as  a  dwelling  place  for  women,  and 
are  taking  the  preliminary  step  by  providing 
the  opportunity  for  their  full  enfranchisement 
at  the  general  election  of  November,  1914.  The 
enfranchisement  of  Nevada's  women  will  com- 
plete a  solid  block  of  Western  states  which  have 
given  women  back  their  work.  As  conditions 
now  are,  with  Nevada  absolutely  surrounded  by 
woman  suffrage  states,  no  woman  can  leave  its 
boundaries  without  being  thereby  potentially 
enfranchised,  no  woman  can  enter  it  from  any 
neighboring  state  without  being  thereby  dis- 
franchised. The  tendency  of  this  condition  is 
to  draw  the  best  class  of  woman  settlers  away 


*  The  figures  given  refer  to  total  population. 
Over  21  years  of  age  there  are  220  men  to  each  100 
women  in  Nevada,  40,026  men  and  18,140  women, 
census  of  1910. 


*  It  is  estimated  that  50  per  cent  of  the  male 
vote  is  transient,  whi\e  only  20  per  cent  of  the 
women  vote  would  he. 


70 


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from  Nevada  to  the  woman  suffrage  states  by 
which  it  is  surrounded.  Until  woman  suffrage 
is  established  a  premium  is  actually  placed  on 
the  emigration  of  Nevada's  women  to  the  bor- 
dering free  states. 

Similar  conditions  prevail  in  Montana,  North 
and  South  Dakota,  where  woman  suffrage  is  also 
to  be  voted  on  in  November,  1914,  and  in  New 


Mexico.  The  men  of  these  states  are,  like 
Nevada  men,  yielding  instinctively  to  what  is 
the  modern,  no  less  than  primitive,  necessity 
of  all  communities:  the  free  opportunity  for 
women  to  do  cheir  special  work,  to  use  their 
mothering,  their  conservative  powers  for  the 
good  of  the  home,  the  town,  the  state. 


Wake  Up,  Nevada! 

By  Carrie  Chapman  Cait 
President  of  the    International   Woman  Suffrage   Alliance   and 
Chairman   of  the    New     York   State    Suffrage    Committee 


©OTH  East  and  West  today  there  is  cause 
for  rejoicing  among  those  who  work  for 
the  enfranchisement  of  women,  a  measure 
destined  to  make  men  and  women  stand 
helpmates  and  equals  in  the  eyes  of  the  govern- 
ments of  the  world. 

In  the  last  few  weeks  we  have  seen  the  woman- 
hood of  Denmark  practically  fully  enfranchised. 
In  Sweden  we  see  a  suffrage  bill  held  up  tem- 
porarily by  the  will  of  an  hereditary  Upper 
House,  while  the  delegates  of  the  people  in  the 
Lower  House  are  fighting  for  the  freedom  of 
their  women.  Recently,  representative  women 
from  26  countries  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
meeting  at  Rome,  voted  unanimously  for 
woman  suffrage,  while  the  great  State  of  Mis- 
souri, with  its  population  of  3,293,335,  by 
initiative  petition  was  swung  into  line  with  five 
other  campaign  states  of  1914. 

When  we  look  at  the  progress  made  by 
woman  suffrage,  we  see  it  is  the  hardy  northern 
races  of  Europe,  the  no  less  sturdy  pioneeis  of 
our  own  great  West,  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
England,  who  have  built  up  the  common- 
wealths of  Australia  and  New  Zealand — these 
are  the  races  who  have  given  to  women  a  voice 
in  the  government  of  their  states. 

Today  Nevada  stands  alone  among  her 
neighbors,  a  black  spot  on  the  suffrage  map  of 
the  West.  Is  she  going  to  redeem  herself? 
With  her  youth  and  spirit,  is  she  going  to  help 
to  set  the  pace  for  the  congested  areas  of  the 
East,  or  is  she  to  be  numbered  among  the  le- 
actionaiies?  As  a  Western  woman,  the  daughter 
of  a  man  who  wrestled  with  fate  in  the  Cali- 
fornia gold  fields  in  1851,  I  cannot  believe  the 
men  of  any  Western  state  so  lacking  in  the 
pioneer  spirit  as  to  refuse  to  give  their  women  a 
square  deal      Nevada  cannot  lag  behind  and 


alone  among  her  neighbors  refuse  to  give  citizen- 
rights  to  her  women. 

The  latest  census  shows  that  in  the  State  of 
Nevada  for  every  100  women  there  are  220  men. 
With  so  over- whelming  a  majority,  even  the 
most  timorous  of  men  can  hardly  fear  to  en- 
franchise women.  There  is  no  case  known,  and 
there  never  will  be  any  issue  on  which  women 
have  been  unanimous;  but  even  were  they  so, 
in  the  State  of  Nevada  how  little  have  the  men 
to  fear  with  their  great  majority. 

It  has  been  reported  among  the  large  news- 
papers of  the  East  that  efforts  are  being  made  to 
convince  the  miners  of  Nevada  that  if  women 
are  enfranchised,  the  saloons  will  all  be  closed 
That  such  a  result  should  be  considered  possible 
shows  a  gross  over-estimation  of  the  powers  of 
the  minority  to  dictate  laws  to  the  majority, 
even  if  women  were  of  one  mind  on  this  subject. 
The  principle  of  the  government  of  our  states 
is  that  it  should  represent  the  average  of  opinion 
of  all  the  people — men  and  women.  Are  the 
men  of  Nevada  less  willing  to  trust  that  average 
opinion  than  any  other  men  of  the  West? 
Among  the  members  of  an  older  community 
where  corroding  influences  are  at  work  and  where 
corruption  is  entrenched,  and  the  powers  of 
the  corporations  strangle  freedom,  there  is  al- 
ways some  portion  of  the  public  subject  to  ap- 
prehension, fearful  of  every  change  proposed, 
that  something  dreadful  will  happen.  These 
influences  should  not  be  at  work  in  our  young 
and  vigorous  country,  and  yet  women  in  many 
countries  have  more  political  rights  than  the 
women  of  America,  while  those  of  the  State  of 
Nevada  are  denied  any  political  power  by  their 
mates — their  men. 

It  is  out  of  the  ballot-box  that  the  average 
opinion  is  crystallized.     When  women  are  en- 


OUT    WEST 


71 


franchisee!,  political  leaders  are  obliged  to  put 
on  the  ticket  such  men  as  the  average  women — 
the  mothers — can  afford  to  vote  for.  Everyone 
knows  that  this  leads  to  the  selection  of  a  better 
type  of  man- — a  man  of  more  insight  and  larger 
public  spirit — than  when  men  alone  select  the 
representatives  of  the  people. 

Today  women  may  pray,  but  at  the  ballot  box 
there  stands  a  political  divinity  who  denies  the 
woman's  prayer.  We  are  the  mothers  of  men 
and  our  first  thought  is  for  our  children.  With 
the  vote  we  women  will  demand  legislation  for 
children's  protection.  It  is  the  motherhood  that 
is  calling  today.  Thru  the  centuries  the  world 
has  agreed  that  a  woman's  best  duty  is  in  mak- 
ing a  home,  and  that  the  man  should  help  and 
protect  her  there.  Woman  suffrage  means  that 
under  modern  conditions  the  world,  outside  the 


home  needs  that  motherhood  to  help  the  man 
solve  his  problem.  ■  Women  ask  for  their  recog- 
nition as  human  beings  with  opinions  not  only 
because  it  is  a  right,  but  because  it  is  a  duty, 
the  highest  duty  which  exists  today. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  there  is  not  a 
single  argument  which  is  advanced  against 
giving  woman  suffrage  that  has  not  at  some 
time  been  advanced  against  giving  men  the 
ballot. 

In  their  great  struggle  in  the  East  against 
corrupt  influences,  the  women  need  the  support 
of  a  solid  West.  Nevada  can  help  the  men  and 
women  of  the  East  best  by  showing  the  spirit 
of  the  West,  the  love  of  freedom,  the  love  of 
justice,  true  equality  between  the  sexes. 

Wake  up,  Nevada! 


\Vhy  Nevada  Should  Give  Women  the  Vote 

By  Dr.  Anna  Howard  Shaw 
President    of    the     National    American    Woman 
Suffrage  Association 


XHAVE  just  returned  from  the  most 
successful  demonstration  for  suffrage  ever 
known  in  tha  International  Council  of 
Women,  held  in  Rome,  at  which  time 
delegates  from  twenty-eight  nations,  represent- 
ing over  seven  millions  of  organized  women, 
passed,  without  a  dissenting  vote,  a  resolution 
calling  upon  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  in 
which  a  representative  government  exists,  to 
grant  equal  political  privileges  to  women  with 
men  citizens. 

With  this  enthusiastic  endorsement  of  woman 
suffrage  by  twenty-eight  of  the  foremost  nations 
of  the  world,  my  thoughts  naturally  turned  with 
great  longing  to  the  States  in  our  own  country, 
in  which  campaigns  are  now  pending,  and  the 
black  spot  of  Nevada,  surrounded  by  the  white 
states,  where  women  are  politically  free,  so 
impressed  itself  upon  my  mind  that  I  tried  to 
think  of  the  reason  for  its  backward  condition. 
The  more  I  thought  about  it,  the  more  every- 
thing favored  the  hope  and  expectation  that 
it  would  no  longer  be  the  one  Western  common- 
wealth which  failed  to  appreciate  what  it  owed 
to  the  pioneer  women  and  their  daughters  for 
their  sacrifices  and  devotion  to  the  State,  when 
it  was  a  comparatively  unknown  and  unsettled 
territory. 

If  ever  any  people  earned  their  freedom,  the 
women  who  trekked  across  the  plain  and  en- 


dured the  hardships  and  privations  which  they 
met,  from  the  rigors  of  the  winters  and  the  heat 
of  the  summer,  the  attacks  from  wild  beasts  and 
wilder  men,  who  bravely  overcame  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  first  years  of  privation  in  a  new 
country,  the  women  of  Nevada  certainly  have 
earned  their  freedom,  for  which  they  have  paid 
a  great  price. 

When  we  compare  the  comfortable  homes, 
the  evidences  of  prosperity  of  the  present  com- 
monwealth with  what  it  was  a  little  more  than 
twenty  years  ago,  when  Susan  B.  Anthony  and 
I  made  our  tour  together  thru  the  State,  we 
naturally  ask  what  share  the  women  have  had 
in  its  development. 

For  the  sake  of  the  women  who  have  suffered 
and  who  gave  the  best  of  their  lives  to  found 
the  commonwealth  of  Nevada,  men  should  no 
longer  be  deaf  to  the  appeals  of  their  daughters 
for  freedom. 

Then  there  is  another  side  to  this  question 
beside  that  of  fair  play  and  justice,  from  which 
the  advantage  of  favorable  action  in  Nevada  at 
this  time  is  most  expedient.  It  was  expressed 
in  a  remark  made  by  the  Speaker  of  the  Lower 
House  of  Congress,  at  a  hearing  granted  to  the 
National  Congressional  Committee,  under  the 
direction  of  Mrs.  Medill  McCormick,  at  which 
Jane  Addams,  Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge  and 
Dr.  Shaw  spoke,  when  presenting  the  resolutions 


72 


OUT    WEST 


passed  by  more  than  100,000  women  on  May  2 
demanding  Congressional  action  in  enfranchis- 
ing the  women  of  the  country.  Speaker  Clark, 
in  response,  said,  "Woman  suffrage  is  as  sure  to 
come  in  this  country  as  is  the  sun  to  rise  tomor- 
row morning.  It  may  be  two,  three  or  five 
years,  but  it  is  coming  speedily."  Speaker 
Clark  simply  voiced  the  opinion  of  every  in- 
telligent man  whose  eyes  are  open  to  see,  or 
whose  ears  can  hear  the  evidences  of  the  speedy 
triumph  of  justice  in  this  country. 

In  the  face  of  this  fact,  which  even  the  most 
obstinate  opponent  to  woman  suffrage  admits, 
why  delay  its  coming?  Why  use  the  time  and 
money  of  the  earnest  women  of  the  country  in 
a  long  drawn-out  endeavor  to  secure  that  which 
is  just  and  is  as  inevitable  as  the  rising  of  to- 
morrow's sun,  when  this  time  and  money  and 
patriotism  might  be  devoted  to  building  up  the 
commonwealth  and  making  it  noted  for  its 
progress  and  just  laws,  which  more  than  any- 
thing else  will  win  it  settlers  and  build  up  homes 
from  one  end  of  the  State  to  the  other? 

It  is  better,  if  you  cannot  be  in  the  fore-front 
of  the  struggle  for  freedom,  not  to  lag  behind 
so  far  that  you  will  have  to  be  drafted  into  its 
service.  While  Nevada  cannot  claim  the  credit 
of  leading  the  Far  West,  for  it  is  already  sur- 
rounded on  every  side  by  states  which  have 
recognized  the  principle  which  underlies  our 
national  life,  that  "governments  derive  their 
just  powers  fiom  the  consent  of  the  governed." 
But  it  has  an  opportunity  to  wipe  the  only 
black  spot  of  disfranchisement  of  one-half  of  its 
people  from  the  Western  map,  and  leave  it 
stainless.  This  is  the  point  which  the  men  of 
Nevada  will  be  called  upon  to  decide  on  Novem- 
ber 3d  next. 

There  is,  however,  another  consideration,  and 
that  is  a  purely  political  one,  which  the  national 


political  parties  will  have  to  deal  with  in  1916. 

The  states  in  which  women  already  vote 
control  84  votes  in  the  Electoral  College,  which 
will  elect  the  President  in  1916.  In  a  closely 
contested  campaign,  84  out  of  529,  which  is  the 
full  vote  of  the  Electoral  College,  is  a  balance  of 
power.  But,  when  we  add  to  these  84  votes 
the  votes  of  the  states  in  which  campaigns  are 
now  pending,  and  in  which  the  vote  will  be  cast 
in  1914,  we  will  add  34  more  votes  in  the  Elec- 
toral College.  This  will  give  to  the  West  the 
practical  control  of  the  Presidential  election, 
which  is  a  consideration  from  a  political  stand- 
point. But,  if  we  add  to  this  150  more  votes 
of  the  states  where  the  subject  of  woman  suf- 
frage will  be  voted  upon  in  1915,  that  will  give 
to  the  states  in  which  woman  suffrage  prevails 
277  votes  in  the  Electoral  College,  or  12  more 
than  is  necessary  to  elect  the  next  President  of 
the  United  States. 

With  such  a  prospect  before  them,  who  could 
doubt  that  every  political  paity  will  place  a 
suffrage  plank  in  its  platform  in  1916? 

Nevada  cannot  afford  to  be  the  only  Far 
Western  state  to  wait  for  the  country  to  force 
the  issue  upon  it.  Such  a  young  and  growing 
and  prosperous  state  should  be  one  of  the  leaders 
of  thought  and  progress  in  democracy,  and  the 
women  of  the  East,  as  well  as  the  progressive 
men  of  the  East,  are  looking  to  Nevada  to  jus- 
tify their  faith  in  her  sense  of  fair  play  and  jus- 
tice. 

There  is  nothing  that  would  bring  Nevada 
and  its  interest  so  prominently  to  the  notice  of- 
the  world  as  the  granting  of  suffrage  in  1914, 
and  the  women  of  the  nation,  believing  in  the 
men  of  the  West  and  in  their  sense  of  fair  play, 
cannot  for  a  moment  doubt  but  Nevada  will 
stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  surrounding 
states  which  have  given  freedom  to  their  women. 


Raising  the  Level  of  Suffrage  in  California, 
Or  What  Have  They  Done  With  It? 

By  Mary  Roberts  Coolidge,  Ph.  D. 
Author  of  "Chinese  Immigration,"  "Why  Women  Are    So,"    etc.,    Vice- President   of  the 

California  Civic  League 


y^(  HE  most  important  thing  that  the  women 
^^^  of  California  have  done  has  been  to 
raise  the  level  of  suffrage  itself.  And 
they  are  doing  it  in  a  very  natural,  in- 
conspicuous and  dignified  way.  In  1911,  when 
they  first  had  the  opportunity  to  vote,  women 


registered  as  a  matter  of  conscience,  rather 
than  to  support  one  party  or  another,  as  men 
usually  do.  As  a  class  they  have  shown  them- 
selves essentially  non-partisan  and  far  more 
interested  in  causes  than  in  particular  candi- 
dates   or    parties.     Their    feminine    intuitions 


OUT     WEST 


73 


make  them  keenly  alive  to  the  dangers  of  ma- 
chine politics  and  they  are  more  and  more  the 
despair  of  those  politicians  who  insist  upon  lin- 
ing up  the  voters  and  herding  them  ignorantly 
to  the  polls. 

California  women,  all  over  the  State  during 
the  last  two  years,  have  been  quietly  studying 
the  political  issues  upon  which  they  have  to 
vote.  They  have  invited  the  State  and  local 
candidates  to  present  themselves  and  their 
measures  before  thousands  of  club  gatherings, 
and  have  taken  their  calibre.  They  are  sur- 
prisingly acute  in  f eeling  the  untrustworthiness 
of  those  who  try  to  hypnotize  the  voters  with 
loud  oratory  and  who  dodge  straight  answers  to 
their  questionings. 

The  non-partisan  forum  offered  by  women's 
clubs  and  civic  leagues  is  already  improving 
the  tone  of  political  campaigns.  Women  de- 
spise personal  attacks  and  the  wordy  buncombe 
which  is  the  usual  stock  of  the  second-iate 
politician;  and  they  are  suspicious  of  his  sweep- 
ing pre-election  promises.  Nor  will  the  femi- 
nine voters  support  men  whose  private  record 
is  crooked  or  indecent — an  attitude  which  is 
compelling  the  party  managers  to  put  up  better 
candidates. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  women  demand 
clear  issues.  They  vote  up  to  their  registration 
often  when  they  perfectly  understand  the  issue; 
but  rather  than  be  befogged  into  voting  wrong, 
when  the  issue  is  not  clear,  they  stay  away  from 
the  polls  entirely.  This  is  the  explanation  of 
many  contradictory  figures  that  have  been 
published  by  the  friends  and  foes  of  suffrage 
with  regard  to  the  behavior  of  California  women 
at  the  polls. 

In  their  first  encounter  with  the  State  Legis- 


lature in  1913,  they  showed  remarkably  good 
sense  in  the  way  in  which  they  brought  their 
political  power  to  bear.  Instead  of  demanding 
impossible  things,  the  larger  bodies  of  women — 
the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  the  Federated  Clubs,  the 
California  Civic  League  and  the  Juvenile  Pro- 
tective Association — got  behind  a  few  measures 
important  to  the  welfare  of  women  and  children 
and  let  alone  the  thousands  of  other  bills  whose 
supporters  clamored  to  secure  the  "woman  vote." 
They  sent  a  delegate  council  to  the  legislative 
session,  but  did  no  lobbying  whatever.  Every 
legislator  had  already  heard  from  the  women 
of  his  home  district  what  bills  they  expected 
him  to  support,  and  the  council  watched  him 
closely  to  see  whether  he  was  fulfilling  his  duty 
as  their  i  epresentative.  If  he  tried  to  shrink  he 
immediately  heard  from  the  women  at  home. 

As  a  result  the  three  measures  endorsed  by 
more  than  50,000  women,  i.  e.  Equal  Guardian- 
ship of  Children,  a  Detention  Home  for  Girls, 
carrying  an  appropriation  of  $200,000,  and  the 
(Iowa)  Red  Light  Abatement  Law  were  passed 
by  large  majorities  in  both  houses — the  latter 
in  spite  of  tremendous  opposition  on  tha  part 
of  the  liquor  and  vice  interests. 

The  women  who  vote  in  California  are  chiefly 
the  solid,  earnest,  domestic  middle-class.  They 
vote  conscientiously  and  intelligently  and  are 
not  easily  fooled.  They  do  not  wish  to  hold 
office,  but  they,  demand  that  candidates  shall 
be  decent  and  shall  have  some  experience  to  fit 
them  for  the  offices  they  seek.  And  they  can- 
not be  held  to  any  party  unless  the  men  and  the 
issues  of  that  party  suit  their  ideas  of  clean, 
representative  government.  They  have  raised 
and  they  will  continue  to  raise  the  whole  level 
of  voting  citizenship. 


Why  Nevada  Should  Win  Its  Suffrage 
Campaign  in  November 

By  Charlotte  Perkins  Cilman 


If  Nevada  repudiates  equal  suffrage,  it  there- 
by condemns  the  five  free  Western  states  which 
border  it,  and  the  four  other  free  Western  states, 
its  further  neighbors,  as  well  as  the  great  mass 
of  Middle  Western  states  which  have  granted 
partial  suffrage  to  their  women.  It  would  so 
put  itself  on  record  with  the  bulk  of  the  Southern 
and  Eastern  states — the  least  progressive  of 
the  whole  country — instead   of  standing  for  a 


"Solid  West"  of  courage,  liberty  and  justice — 
the  land  that  is  not  afraid  of  its  women. 

Nevada  should  show  the  world  that  it  is  not 
ruled  by  the  desires  of  its  desultory  transient 
bachelor  residents,  and  those  who  cater  to  such 
desires;  but  by  the  real  citizenship,  the  men 
who  call  Nevada  "home,"  who  live  there,  work 
there,  marry  and  raise  families  there,  building 
up  the  country. 


74 


OUT    WEST 


There  are  those  who  wish  to  keep  Nevada 
"wide  open" — a  national  resort  for  all  the 
popular  vices,  but  there  are  others  who  do  not 
wish  their  State  to  be  the  possible  "tenderloin" 
of  the  West;  the  not  impossible  "red-light  dis- 
trict" for  our  whole  country. 


Those  who  value  permanent,  legitimate 
prosperity  more  than  transient  illegitimate 
popularity;  those  who  wish  to  move  at  the  head 
of  the  procession  instead  of  sitting  still  in  the 
rear,  will  vote  for  equal  suffrage  in  Nevada. 


Nevada  Owes  Enfranchisement  to  Its  Women 


By  lne{   Haynes  Gillmore 


FIRST,  I  wish  to  repeat  what  has  been 
said  many  limes,  and  whai.  must  be 
said  many  times  again,  that  the  feminist 
movement,  of  which  the  demand  for 
the  ballot  is  but  a  small  part,  is  not  a  movement 
to  destroy  the  home  or  even  to  desert  it.  It  is 
quite  the  opposite  indeed,  a  movement  to  en- 
large the  home,  to  extend  its  walls  until  they 
cover  the  town,  the  county,  the  state,  the 
country,  the  world.  Woman  has  come  finally 
to  realize  that  she  can  no  longer  stay  in  her  own 
home,  safe,  guarded,  happy,  care-free  and  con- 
tinue to  be  a  moral  person  and  a  good  citizen  if 
outside  the  home,  the  powers  of  evil  prey  on 
the  homeless  and  the  helpless.  She  realizes 
now  that  it  is  part  of  her  business  in  life  to  help 
make  the  world  a  place  in  which  children  can 
grow  to  a  healthy,  able,  useful  citizenship. 

Her  greatest  single  weapon  in  this  struggle  is 
the  ballot. 

That  is  why  she  is  asking  for  it. 

For  women  to  five  in  a  world,  in  which  social 
consent  is  registered  bjr  means  of  the  ballot, 
and  to  be  without  that  ballot,  is  like  owning  a 
locked  house  to  which  she  has  no  key. 

For  woman  to  enter  the  economic  struggle 
without  the  ballot  is  like  going  into  battle  with- 
out a  gun. 

For  woman  to  submit  to  government  at  the 
hands  of  one  sex  or  one  class  and  yet  pay  the 
taxes  and  obey  the  laws  imposed  on  her  by  that 
sex  or  class  is  like  trying  to  run  a  household  of 
servants  whom  she  is  expected  to  pay  but  over 
whom  she  has  no  powers  of  discipline. 

For  a  government  to  keep  one  whole  sex  dis- 
enfranchised is  economically  as  sensible  a  pro- 
ceeding as  for  a  department  store  voluntarily 
to  release  one-half  its  employes  from  the  neces- 
sity of  work  and  yet  keep  them  on  in  the  estab- 
lishment— idle. 

In  the  few  months  that  I  have  spent  in  Cali- 
fornia I  have  had  ample  opportunity  to  see 
what  the  use  of  the  ballot  does  for  women.  I 
have  found  myself  all  along  comparing  the  women 


of  California  with  the  women  of  my  native  state 
— Massachusetts.  As  women,  the  women  of 
California  are,  of  course,  no  abler  or  better  than 
the  women  of  Massachusetts;  as  citizens  they 
are  infinitely  superior.  For,  in  Massachusetts 
(where  women  cannot  vote,  except  on  school 
questions)  women  express  themselves  (except 
as  women's  clubs  and  charitable  enterprises  offer 
them  a  limited  field  of  action )  only  in  conversa- 
tion, in  writing  and  in  public  speaking.  In 
California,  women  express  themselves  in  all 
these  ways  and,  in  addition,  in  action.  I  am  in 
a  state  of  perpetual  surprize  at  the  degree  of 
their  acumen,  their  sympathy,  their  enthus- 
iasm, their  initiative,  their  courage,  their  in- 
tegrity, their  noble  social  conviction  and  their 
high  social  vision.  It  has  become  a  bromidiom 
to  say  of  the  newly-enfranchised  woman  that 
her  psychology  has  not  been  dulled  to  the  ac- 
ceptance of  red  tape  and  slow  process  of  the  law, 
that  in  consequence  for  her  to  see  a  flaw  in  the 
social  system  is  to  want  to  remedy  it  imme- 
diately. She  is  always  attempting  the  impos- 
sible and  always  accomplishing  it — simply  be- 
cause she  believes  that  it  can  be  done.  I  should 
say  that  one  great  proof  of  the  success  of  equal 
suffrage  in  California  lies  in  the  character  of  its 
women  citizens. 

I  am  equally  imprest  by  the  degree  to  which 
the  men  citizens  of  California  co-operate  with 
its  women  citizens— how  much  they  trust  them 
and  lean  upon  them.  It  seems  to  me  that  when- 
ever the  political  leaders  meditate  a  peculiarity 
difficult  feat  in  social  propoganda,  they  turn 
instinctively  to  the  women  to  accomplish  it. 
It  is  as  though  the  men  had  relinquished  a  big 
share  of  a  heavy  political  burden — and  re- 
linquished it  with  a  sigh  of  relief.  Another 
great  proof  of  the  success  of  equal  suffrage  in 
California  lies  in  the  character  of  its  men- 
citizens. 

More  than  any  state  in  the  Union,  perhaps, 
Nevada  owes  enfranchisement  to  its  women. 
Conversely,  perhaps,  more  than  any  women  in 


OUT    WEST 


75 


the  country,  Nevada  women  owe  it  to  their 
state  to  acquire  the  franchise.  First  and  fore- 
most, Nevada,  because  of  its  small  population, 
is  still  laboring  to  outgrow  pioneer  conditions, 
needs  all  the  work  its  men-citizens  can  give  in 
the  way  of  exploration  and  development,  of 
breaking  ground  and  building.  And  it  needs 
all  the  service  its  women-citizens  can  give  in 
the  way  of  conservation — to  make  living  con- 
ditions so  attractive  that  the  outsider  and  the 
transient  is  constantly  turning  into  a  permanent 
resident.  That  is  one  of  the  peculiar  functions 
of  women  as  citizens.     Surrounded  as  it  is  on 


all  sides  by  states  which  have  given  the  franchise 
to  their  women,  Nevada  has  the  effect  in  com- 
parison, of  falling  short  in  enterprise,  in  pro- 
gress, in  all  that  wonderful  generosity  of  spirit 
which  we  call  Western.  If  it  continues  to  re- 
fuse this  boon  to  its  women,  Nevada  must 
inevitably  become  a  kind  of  segregated  area — 
in  the  midst  of  a  happy,  prosperous  and  pro- 
gressive West — of  dissatisfaction,  inertness, 
supineness  and  social  powerless»ess  on  the  part 
of  its  women-citizens.  This  will  react  dis- 
advantageously  on  the  women,  and  on — Nevada. 


Equal  Suffrage  and  Nevada  Prosperity 

By  Gail  Laugblin 


OOES  it  pay? 
That  is  the  test  which  some  persons 

grara?   apply  to  everything.     Not,  "Is  it  just? 

tixSusa  Is  it  right?  Will  it  advance  human 
liberty?  Will  it  promote  social  and  civic  right- 
eousness? Will  it  add  to  the  sum  of  human 
happiness?"  but,  "Will  it  pay  in  dollars  and 
cents — will  it  pay  in  material  prosperity?"  And 
that  is  the  test  which,  with  some  persons,  the 
proposal  for  equal  suffrage  must  meet  after  it 
has  met  and  successfully  stood  every  test  based 
on  right  and  justice.  But  this  last  test,  too,  the 
cause  of  equal  suffrage  can  stand,  provided  the 
test  be  the  material  prosperity  of  the  whole 
State  and  not  the  selfish  aggrandizement  of  the 
few  who  would  exploit  the  many. 

During  the  decade  1900  to  1910,  women 
voted  in  only  four  states — Colorado,  Idaho, 
Utah  and  Wyoming.  All  of  these  states  are 
near  neighbors  of  Nevada  and  all  are  similar  to 
Nevada  in  climate,  topography  and  in  natural 
characteristics  generally.  The  traveler  cannot 
tell,  from  appearances,  when  he  passes  from 
Idaho  or  Utah  into  Nevada.  Yet,  according 
to  the  United  States  census,  the  population  of 
Colorado  increased  by  259,324  during  the  ten 
years  from  1900  to  1910;  the  population  of  Idaho 
by  163,822;  the  population  of  Utah  by  96,602; 
the  population  of  Wyoming  by  53,434,  and  the 
population  of  Nevada  by  only  39,540.  In  other 
words,  in  those  ten  years  over  62  times  as  many 
persons  went  to  Colorado  to  live  as  went  to 
Nevada;  over  4  times  as  many  went  to  Idaho; 
more  than  2  1-3  times  as  many  went  to  Utah, 
and  11-3  times  as  many  went  to  Wyoming. 
Wyoming  is  the  only  state  in  which  women 


voted  during  the  whole  of  any  of  the  other  ten 
year  periods  covered  by  the  United  States 
census,  and  there  women  have  been  voting 
since  1869.  In  1910,  the  population  of  Wyom- 
ing was  more  than  16  times  as  great  as  in  1870. 
In  Nevada  the  population  was  less  than  twice 
as  great  in  1910  as  it  was  in  1870. 

According  to  the  census  figures,  the  capital 
invested  in  manufacturing  increased,  from  1899 
to  1909,  by  over  104  millions  of  dollars  in 
Colorado;  by  over  30  millions  in  Idaho;  by  over 
39  millions  in  Utah,- and  by  only  something  over 
8  millions  in  Nevada.  In  this  respect,  Wyom- 
ing fell  behind  Nevada,  the  increase  being  a 
little  over  4  millions,  a  difference  which  was  more 
than  made  up,  however,  by  the  increase  in 
other  lines. 

During  the  ten  years  from  1900  to  1910,  as 
the  census  shows,  the  value  of  farms  and  farm 
property  increased  by  330  millions  of  dollars  in 
Colorado;  by  238  millions  in  Idaho;  by  75 
millions  in  Utah;  by  99  millions  in  Wyoming 
and  by  only  31  millions  in  Nevada. 

Equal  suffrage,  we  know,  is  the  evangel  of  a 
higher  and  nobler  liberty.  It  seems  also  to  be 
the  advance  agent  of  prosperty.  There  are 
good  reasons  why  this  should  be  so.  To  the 
equal  suffrage  states  come  women  who  prize 
liberty,  and  with  them  come  men  who  believe 
in  a  square  deal.  Thither,  also,  come  intelli- 
gently conscientious  parents,  desirous  of  settling 
in  a  community  where  the  welfare  of  the  home 
and  the  child  receives  the  serious  concern  of 
the  state.  Such  welfare  is  especially  promoted 
in  the  states  where  women  vote.     With  increased 


76 


OUT    WEST 


population  come  development  of  natural  re- 
sources and  the  establishment  of  manufactures, 
for,  whether  or  not  trade  follows  the  flag,  it 
does  follow  population. 

Centuries  of  history  have  proven  that,  so  far 


as  the  interests  of  the  whole  people  are  concerned, 
justice  is  always  the  highest  expediency.  Equal 
suffrage  presents  no  exception  to  the  rule,  and 
material  prosperity,  as  well  as  higher  ethical 
standards,  follows  upon  its  heels. 


Feminism 

By  Mary  Austin 


FEMINISM  is  the  inherent  hope  of  women 
to  be  esteemed  for  something  over  and 
above  their  femininity.  As  it  expresses 
itself  modernly  it  is  a  determination  to 
be  valued  rather  than  desired;  to  be  allowed  to 
meet  the  purely  human  problems  of  life  human- 
ly, untaunted  by  the  fact  of  womanhood  and 
unhampered  by  any  conventional  reading  of  it. 
As  a  movement,  Feminism  allies  itself  to  the 
new  feeling  for  efficiency  in  all  departments  of 
living. 

It  has  its  rise  very  naturally  in  the  ache  of 
human  faculties  deprived  of  their  natural  exer- 
cise, and  has  been  fostered  by  the  withdrawal 
of  constructive  activity  from  the  home.  If  I 
were  to  say  that  the  Feminist  movement  is  the 
stir  women  make  running  to  catch  up  with  their 
proper  occupations,  I  should  say  the  most 
characteristic  thing,  if  not  the  whoh  thing  about 
it.  For  women  are  by  nature  makers,  and  the 
cord  that  binds  them  to  their  ancient  creative 
activities  is  drawing  them,  often  against  their 
inclination,  into  all  the  places  where  things  are 
made.  If  there  were  nothing  more  behind  it 
than  this  inevitable  industrial  shift  out  of  the 
little  house  into  the  big  houses  where  things 
are  spun  and  preserved  and  distributed,  there 
would  still  be  a  movement  calling  for  consider- 
able re-adjustment  and  re-shaping  of  social 
ideals. 

But  there  is  more  behind  it  than  that;  there 
is  a  general  clarification  of  ideals  of  womanhood 
and  a  new  appreciation  of  its  more  precious 
personal  phases  in  terms  of  social  service.  Far 
from  constituting  a  denial  of  tenderness  and 
charm  and  spiritual  diplomacy,  the  new  femin- 
ism actively  resists  the  waste  of  these  attributes 
in  ill-paid,  drudging  labors,  and  the  cheapening 
of  their  quality  in  the  attempt  to  make  them  do 
duty  for  every  possible  human  exigency.     The 


"advanced"  woman  is  willing  to  be  provocative 
in  the  interest  of  her  racial  instincts,  but  she 
objects  to  the  enforced  use  of  provocativeness 
as  a  means  of  obtaining  her  just  wage,  or  a 
better  system  of  city  sewage.  She  would  rest 
her  claim  to  be  heard  on  matters  of  social  utility, 
on  her  knowledge  of  fact  and  fitness  rather  than 
on  what  she  can  contrive  to  have  any  man 
think  of  her. 

This  demand  for  reality  in  their  social  rela- 
tions is  not  undertaken  by  women  without  full 
realization  of  what  it  may  lead  to  in  the  way  of 
corresponding  changes  in  the  traditional  at- 
titudes of  men.  Unquestionably  the  movement 
derives  something  from  the  instinctive  feminine 
response  to  the  predicament  men  have  got  them- 
selves into  by  attempting  to  assume  the  whole 
material  universe.  It  is,  on  the  part  of  both 
sexes,  a  movement  for  release,  not  only  from  the 
unequal  distribution  of  labors  and  functions, 
but  from  the  strained,  traditional  "masculine" 
and  "feminine"  attitudes.  The  raspings  and 
antagonisms  of  the  situation  are  the  growing 
pains  of  the  discovery  between  men  and  women 
of  reality,  in  each  by  the  other. 

I  have  said  that  the  trend  of  the  movement  is 
toward  social  efficiency.  This  is  particularly 
true  of  the  struggle  for  woman  suffrage.  It  is 
the  outcome  of  a  new  conception  of  government 
as  a  means  of  accelerating  the  business  of  living 
together,  in  which  the  ballot  becomes  the 
handiest  instrument.  The  discovery  made  by 
men  in  the  last  century  that  without  it  they 
could  render  social  judgment  either  not  at  all 
or  very  clumsily,  has  been  made  by  women  in 
this.  Until  this  means  of  functioning  freely  in 
society  is  accorded  them,  we  shall  never  know 
the  real  nature  of  the  feminine  problem,  or 
whether  there  is  any. 


Nevada   Suffrage   Campaign  Edition 

NEVADA 
NEXT! 


Map  of  United  States  Showing 
Woman's  Suffrage  Conditions. 

White  States — Full  Suffrage 
Shaded  States-Partial  Suffrage 
Dark  States — No  Suffrage 


Votes  For  Nevada  Women,  November  3,  1914 


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